California to towns defying the COVID-19 shutdown: No cash for you

[Zorro]

It was a boast heard around this Central Valley town of 30,000, courtesy of Mayor Paul Creighton.

Atwater had not just flattened the COVID-19 case curve. “We’ve smashed the curve,” he declared.

With just 12 confirmed cases, the City Council in mid-May declared Atwater a “sanctuary city” for business, allowing all businesses to reopen in defiance of California’s shutdown orders.

How times have changed.

Cases have surged past 800 in Atwater. Merced County is on the state’s coronavirus watch list. And federal officials have declared the rural, agricultural Central Valley one of the nation’s most worrisome hot spots for the spread of the virus.

What has not changed is Atwater’s defiance. City leaders refuse to rescind the sanctuary city resolution — despite the state’s withholding federal emergency coronavirus relief funds because of it.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-08/rural-business-sanctuary-city-central-valley-covid-state-money

[in2herbs]

1. A week of so ago there was a governor (??) who told constituents in one of the towns that they

would get no federal funding if they didn't wear masks. Can't remember the full details.

I think this should be the process by which we get COVID under control. No mask, No money.

The city council in Sturgis should be made accountable for putting the economy over the health of its citizens, especially when the citizens showed up at meetings to stop the bike week.