North Carolina governor Rory Cooper is taking an even handed tone in reopening NC, but, might he be looking at some lawsuits in short order?
Governor Roy Cooper on Wednesday announced another step toward North Carolina’s reopening plan and signed a new Executive Order easing restrictions on such businesses as restaurants and salons.
“Last month, we laid out a phased approach to easing restrictions in our state that relied on data science and facts,” Cooper said. “Today we’re announcing another gradual and cautious step while still keeping important health and safety measures in place.”
Officially, Phase 2 will begin Friday at 5 p.m.
The Stay-At-Home order will be lifted but a “Safer-At-Home” recommendation will go into effect.
New guidance provided by state officials require restaurants to operate at 50 percent capacity and have all staff wear masks or face coverings, among other mandates and recommendations.
Personal care businesses, including barber shops, hair and nail salons, tattoo parlors, tanning salons and massage therapists, must also operate at 50 percent capacity.
But, those last ones can only operate on appointment, and everyone must wear a facemask. Indoor gatherings can have no more than 10 people, while outdoors the number goes up to 25. Pools can open and operate at 50%. Camps for kids, both day and overnight, can now open, and daycare can start having kids. (WRAL has a more detailed list of this)
Sports and shows can be held, but no more than 10 people can attend. That would be interesting for a Carolina Hurricanes or Durham Bulls game, eh? But
Notably, bars, nightclubs, gyms and health clubs must remain closed, according to the new order. Though Cooper and health officials had expressed hope the trends in new cases and testing would allow modified openings, the Governor explained that recent data and metrics compelled them to “back off” further lifting restrictions.
Phase 2, moreover, also precludes movie theaters, bowling alleys, and other indoor entertainment venues like museums from opening.
Playgrounds will also stay closed.
Suffice to say, those business owners are stunned
But Cooper said Wednesday that indoor places where people crowd together and often share items could become flashpoints for a renewed coronavirus outbreak, so he left all of those locations off his updated plan for Phase 2, which officials said would last at least five weeks. (snip)
“We had planned to open, and we thought that opening would come either this week or next week,” said Jack Wiggen, owner of Bull City Crossfit in Durham. (snip)
Wiggen said he couldn’t forecast the financial impact of waiting another five weeks to open.
“It’s devastating news financially, he said. “Thinking about another five weeks of this is really hard to wrap my mind around.”
That’s right, five more weeks. Places like Planet Fitness might survive, but independent gyms and other businesses, including bars, probably won’t. Might business band together to sue? What’s the difference between going to a restaurant with 50% capacity and distancing and a bar with the same? People who go to gyms tend to be more healthy, and for many, going to the gym helps with their mental health. Another 5 weeks is not a good thing. Many of the gym owners spent money getting their business ready, with taped off areas, sanitizing equipment, contracting for specialized cleaning crews, and more.
It’s progress, though.
These business owners need to tell the government overlords to pound sand and open anyway at full capacity.
Our esteemed host asked:
The Democrats have figured out what I’ve noted before: even successful, lawsuits take time and money.
Two federal judges bitch slapped Reichsstatthalter Andy Beshear (NSDAP-KY) on his orders closing churches to in-person services, but by the time they did so, Herr Beshear had already said that churches could reopen after May 20th. The ruling was on the easiest grounds the judges could find — meaning: not a declaration that closing the churches, period, was unconstitutional, but that it was an overreach, given that Home Despot and Kroger were allowed to remain open — and the churches filing suit had only two additional Sundays available to them before the Reichsstatthalter’s directives would have allowed opening anyway. With churches ‘allowed’ to reopen anyway this coming Sunday, any further lawsuits would be dismissed as moot.
So, if the Tarheel State’s bars, gyms and health clubs do file suit, it’ll cost them big bucks, and by the time they would have a chance to win in court, the five weeks would just about be up.
Our constitutional rights have been irreparably damaged, because the Democrats have found that they can stomp on them willy-nilly, and a large number of the sheeple will smile and say, “This is good.”