CA GOV. NEWSOM EYES NEW RESTRICTIONS

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday at a press briefing and he plans to pull back the state’s reopening plan before the holiday weekend. “We’ll be making some additional announcements on efforts to use the ‘dimmer switch’ and begin to toggle back on our stay-at-home order and tighten things up,” he said.

Newsom took time to focus on “specifically family gathering, where family members begin to mix and they take down their guard.” He continued to described a hypothetical situation by saying, “They may walk into that barbecue with masks on, they may put the cooler down and immediately the mask comes off,” he said. “… And all of a sudden here comes Uncle Bob, two hours late. He gives everyone a hug, and they’re all, ‘Hey, Uncle Bob, where’s the mask?’ And Uncle Bob, ‘I don’t believe in that’ and the whole thing starts to take shape.”

Some are reporting that Newsom is considering statewide mask enforcement regulations. While some sheriffs have announced they will not follow unconstitutional or unlawful orders, Newsom took a jab at them via the state’s pursestrings:

We have conditioned $2.5 million in our state budget on applying the spirit and the letter of the law as it relates to health directives at the county level,” Newsom said. “If local officials are unwilling to enforce and are being dismissive, we will condition the distribution of those dollars. Again, $2.5 million.

Newsom intends to make further announcements Wednesday stating, “Tomorrow we’ll be making some additional announcements on efforts to use that ‘dimmer switch’ that we’ve referred to, and begin to toggle back on our stay-at-home order and tighten things up,” said Newsom. “The framework for us is this:  if you’re not going to stay home and you’re not going to wear masks in public, we have to enforce and we will, and we’ll be making announcements on enforcement tomorrow.”