Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser is lifting the ban on indoor dining for restaurants. Isn’t that great news? It’s probably just a coincidence that she is doing this two days after Joe Biden was sworn in as president. Democrats would never have shut down our economy for purely political reasons, right?
DC Mayor Bowser confirms indoor bar and restaurant service to resume at 25% capacity starting Jan. 22
Washington, D.C., will roll back its COVID-19 restrictions on indoor dining beginning Friday, Jan. 22 at 5 a.m., allowing restaurants and bars to return to 25% capacity, or no more than 250 people.
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The move, first announced on Wednesday in a tweet by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s chief of staff, John Falcicchio, aligns with the end of an “Inauguration Pause” on city’s Phase 2 reopening activities.
The “Inauguration Pause” was an extension of a Dec. 23 order implemented to flatten the curve amid a surge in coronavirus cases, which was set to expire on Jan. 15. Bowser cited ongoing “public health and safety” concerns as the reason for the extension, following a riot at the Capitol by pro-Trump protesters on Jan. 6 that left five people dead.
In addition to shutting down indoor dining, the order closed museums and the D.C. Circular Route along the National Mall. It also limited libraries to pick-up and drop-off services only for three weeks, ordered the Department of Parks and Recreation to offer reservations for individual swim and fitness room sessions only and required that all non-essential business employees telework, with the exception of in-person staff needed to support minimum operations.
More residents left New York over the last year than did residents from any other state, new population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show. According to early census figures, a net total of 126,355 people packed their bags and ditched the Empire State between July 2019 and July 2020, marking a 0.65% percent drop. That’s the most by any state in the nation by both number and percentage.
Following close behind New York, in terms of percentage loss, were Illinois (0.63%), Hawaii (0.61%), and West Virginia (0.58%).Meanwhile, the big population gainers over the past year were western and southern states such as Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, South Carolina, and Florida.
The New York Post noted that while the state has been losing residents since 2016, this year’s drop was significantly higher than in years past.
The Empire Center, a fiscally conservative think tank located in Albany, said if the numbers are confirmed when the census is certified next year, the 2010s will become the first decade since the 1970s during which New York experienced an overall population decline.
“The 2020 estimated New York population represented a net decline of 41,326, or 0.21%, from the official decennial census count in 2010,” the group wrote, noting that the state’s usual population boost from foreign immigration has not been able to keep up with the resident exodus over the last decade.
“New York’s sagging population total is due mainly to an outmigration flow of 1.4 million people to other states since 2010,” it said.
To make matters worse, the population decline in New York is not merely an embarrassment for the blue state, but also comes with serious political consequences.
USA Today reported that due to its population loss compared to the rest of the country, New York will “certainly” lose one House seat — and perhaps two — when a congressional reapportionment is conducted in 2022.
New York is currently tied with Florida with 27 House seats, the third most of any state following California (53) and Texas (36). But Florida is expected to surpass New York during reapportionment. The Sunshine State surpassed New York in 2014 as the third most populous state, and the gap has continued to widen since then.
For years, critics of New York’s Democratic policies have argued that the increasing expanse of government and economic woes such as soaring property taxes are driving residents out of the state. But in 2018, ignoring those concerns, Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo blamed the population decline on bad weather.
Two California megachurches pastors have rebranded their churches into temporary “strip clubs”in protest of the state’s closing down of places of worship due to the COVID-19 pandemic while permitting strip clubs to stay open.
In November, San Diego Superior Court Judge Joel R. Wohlfeil ordered California to end any actions that prevent clubs from “being allowed to provide live adult entertainment.” Meanwhile, several California churches continue to fight legal battles with authorities to reopen in-person indoor services.
Last Sunday, Godspeak Calvary Chapel Pastor Rob McCoy, who has sparred with local authorities over orders prohibiting indoor worship services, circumvented the restrictions by turning his church into a “strip club” of his own, RT reports. In a video circulating of the service, McCoy first plays a Fox News clip of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee who quipped that churches should reopen as a “temporary strip club.”
“I don’t have a lot of experience with the strip clubs,” Huckabee says in the clip. “I do have quite a bit of experience with churches … and I would think it’s ridiculous to say that people are safer in a strip club than they are at church.”
Huckabee suggested churches must “announce their pastor will remove his tie during the sermon, and therefore he will take off an article of clothing making it a temporary strip club so that people will be able to go to church.”
McCoy, who was previously fined thousands of dollars for holding church despite restrictions, then breaks out in a clean version of a “striptease” before removing his tie as music plays in the background.
“This is insane!” McCoy said afterward. “Cannot America see the hypocrisy and the stupidity of all this? You’re being lied to.”
McCoy told pastors who “don’t do politics” to “get out of the church” because the church is “all about politics.”
“You’re contending for the welfare and the concerns and the livelihood of your neighbors. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Those that are abused are being quarantined with their abusers. The elderly are lonely and isolated for no reason. No one gets to attend the funerals of their loved ones … it’s our responsibility to support folks.”
“We are finished with your tyranny,” he declared.
Also in protest of the order, Senior Pastor of Awaken Church Jurgen Matthesius did a “striptease” before his sermon. In a video posted on social media, the pastor is seen removing his tie as music plays in the background.
“STRIP CLUBS (Not Churches) are exempt from the COVID lockdowns, and are deemed essential by our governor!” he wrote on Instagram.
“Soooooo… we decided we are NOW AWAKEN FAMILY FRIENDLY STRIP CLUB! (Where we strip the devil of his hold, power & authority over people’s lives!),” he captioned the video. “Enjoy the intro to the preach today!”
Under California’s current health order, indoor businesses in counties in the purple, meaning the area has more than seven COVID-19 new daily cases per 100,000 people, must remain closed. This includes indoor religious services.
On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted temporary relief to the Pasadena-based Harvest Rock Church which sued over the state’s restrictions on in-person worship gatherings. Citing its recent 5-4 ruling in Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo to justify granting the relief, the high court sent the case back to the district court.
Harvest Rock had argued in its petition that for most of the year, Gov. Gavin Newsom “has continued to discriminate against Churches’ religious worship services while permitting myriad nonreligious entities to continue to gather without numerical restrictions inside the same house of worship and in other external comparable congregate assemblies.”
The church accused Newsom of “publicly encouraging and supporting mass protestors, rioters, and looters to gather without numerical restriction in blatant disregard for his own Orders[,]” and of personally disregarding his own orders, including an image taken of Newsom with a large group at a restaurant despite indoor dining restrictions.
Pastor Dennis Jackman, who is also a physician, leads Community United Methodist Church in Pasadena, Md. | Facebook/Community United Methodist Church
A Maryland pastor and physician, who was recently issued a citation by a local health official threatening a fine, jail time and the shutting down of his church for answering his door without a mask, is now speaking out.
“The document that they handed me suggested that if we weren’t in compliance, first of all, they would shut us down completely and that I could be fined $5,000 and imprisoned for one year,” the Rev. Dr. Dennis Jackman, who leads the Community United Methodist Church in Pasadena, told WCBM.
“I just can’t believe this. I truly believe the power of the church to help to facilitate the American Revolution and to have churches shut down? The flip side is we have people out there that are hurting dramatically that need love and care. People that are deeply depressed and what we’ve done is isolated people and said we can’t have contact with people.”
The incident which has attracted national attention was first made public by The American Constitutional Rights Union, which is dedicated to protecting the civil rights of all Americans by publicly advancing a constitutional understanding of their essential rights and freedoms.
Jackman told the organization that the health official came to the door of the church on a recent weekday when he was alone at the church building.
Community United Methodist Church in Pasadena, Md. | Facebook/Community United Methodist Church
“I was in my office alone, without a mask on, and heard someone at the locked door of the church. I was not expecting anyone, so I went to see who was trying to get in the church. Immediately after answering the door, I went to my desk and put on my mask, but the health official seemed intent on finding something worthy of a citation,” Dr. Jackman said.
He told WCBM that the health official said he was directed to the church after they received an anonymous complaint that “there might be somebody here without a mask on.”
ACRU President Lori Roman said she was concerned about the call that triggered the incident and blamed it on the state government encouraging neighbors to “snitch” on each other through COVID-19 violations hotlines.
“The other twist on this is that the government is encouraging people to snitch on their neighbors. We saw a twist on this, a worshiper from Rev. Jackman’s church called and snitched to us about the health official giving the citation to their pastor,” Roman said.
“Pastors need to band together” to fight back against these abuses, she said, noting that they can also call her organization for help.
“Pastor Jackman wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was alone in his church, there were no services going on when a health department official showed up at a locked door, tried to get in. Pastor Jackman jumped up to try to see who was getting in his church and his citation was simply for showing up at the door to trying to check on who was getting in the church with no mask on. That’s outrageous and it’s time to fight back,” she said.
The ACRU further noted their appreciation for recent comments by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, warning that the COVID pandemic “resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty” and that religious liberty is “in danger of becoming a second-class right.”
A week ago the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Catholic diocese and an Orthodox Jewish group, temporarily blocking New York’s COVID-19 restrictions on houses of worship.
“Members of this Court are not public health experts, and we should respect the judgment of those with special expertise and responsibility in this area. But even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten,” the high court said in its 5-4 ruling. “The restrictions at issue here, by effectively barring many from attending religious services, strike at the very heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty.”
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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American Family Association
American Family Association (AFA), a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1977 by Donald E. Wildmon, who was the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Southaven, Mississippi, at the time. Since 1977, AFA has been on the frontlines of Ame
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