The Justice Department on Tuesday sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom expressing concerns about how soon churches will be allowed to resume in-person services and raising Constitutional issues.
The letter takes issue with state plans to allow the resumption of in-person religious services, which is scheduled to start after manufacturing and officework are allowed to resume.
It also cites a past statement from U.S. Attorney Bill Barr that says, “government may not impose special restrictions on religious activity that do not also apply to similar nonreligious activity.”
Tuesday’s letter also says that the state’s stay-at-home order “does not appear to treat religious activities and comparable nonreligious activities the same.”
Small business owner on deciding to close permanently: ‘It makes us angry’
Louisiana DMV closes same day it reopened over fear of spread
NEW ORLEANS — Coronavirus fears closed a Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles location near New Orleans the same morning that it reopened after a two-month pandemic closure.
The office in Harvey was notified that someone in the building might have been in contact with somebody who had COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, Deputy Commissioner Keith Neal said Tuesday.
Neal said he did not know whether the notification was from a state Department of Health contact tracer. The health department reported Tuesday that more than 35,000 people have been diagnosed with the disease, 1,004 of them are hospitalized and 2,458 have died. About 26,200 are presumed recovered.
He said the office — one of 11 that reopened statewide Monday after being closed since March 20 — will be sanitized before reopening.
U.S., Canada, Mexico extend border restrictions
TORONTO — The U.S., Canada and Mexico have extended their agreements to keep their shared borders closed to non-essential travel to June 21 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the border is a source of vulnerability, so the agreement will be extended by another 30 days. The Canada restrictions were announced on March 18 and were extended in April.
Trudeau said Canada’s provincial leaders clearly wanted to continue the measures.
“This will keep people in both of our countries safe.” Trudeau said.
U.S. President Donald Trump also confirmed the extension, but looked forward to its eventual end, saying, “everything we want to get back to normal.”
Mexico’s Foreign Affairs ministry said via Twitter that after reviewing the spread of COVID-19 in Mexico and the United States the governments had decided to leave the restrictions implemented March 21 unchanged.
Inside Mexico’s fight against coronavirus
Kroger employees won’t have to return extra money
Kroger said Tuesday that it will not require grocery employees who were overpaid to return the extra money.
“We’ve instructed our payroll department to directly inform the small number of associates affected by the overpayments of Emergency Leave of Absence pay that we will not seek repayment,” the grocer said in a statement to NBC News.
It was not immediately clear what Kroger was referring to by “Emergency Leave of Absence pay.”
Kroger on March 29 issued what it called hazard “hero” pay, an extra $2 an hour, for its employees in retail stores and warehouses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The corporation announced it would end the hazard pay in mid-May. On May 15, the grocer announced it would give a bonus of $400 for full-time and $200 for part-time associates after Kroger’s union, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, spoke out against the end of hazard pay.
An undated letter shared Monday on social media appeared to be a request from Kroger asking an employee to return hazard pay amounting to about $462.
NBC was unable to verify the authenticity of the notice, but in its statement Tuesday, Kroger said that it would not ask associates to repay any overpayments.
Fact check: Are front-line workers taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19?
Medical professionals say they do not have any evidence to back up President Donald Trump’s repeated claim that “many” and “thousands” of front-line workers are taking hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic for COVID-19.
The American Medical Association, the country’s largest medical association, tells NBC News: “The AMA does not know of any tracking or surveys examining HCQ use among health care workers.”
While hydroxychloroquine was widely used in March in New York City hospitals on Covid-19 patients, but doctors immediately stopped prescribing it as soon as warnings about its potential side effects — some of them fatal — came to light. An ICU doctor at a New York hospital who did not want to be identified as speaking without authorization told NBC News that hydroxychloroquine was “absolutely not“ used by front-line workers as a prophylaxis at his hospital at any time, but said he thinks the drug might have killed some patients during the time it was given as standard care.
Anesthesiologist AJ Rai, who came to New York City from California to treat Covid-19 patients, said doctors initially might have taken it as a prophylaxis but the “data debunked [the use of the drug] weeks ago.
“There is zero evidence for it as prophylaxis [and] questionable evidence for taking it very very early in the course of an infection, but that’s a stretch now based on what we’ve learned,” Rai said.
When asked what the president was referencing, the White House pointed to the 12 known trials that have been reported on, including one by Henry Ford Health System, which will lead a study of 3,000 first responders of hydroxychloroquine as a preventative medication.
Masks required, fewer games, buffet closed: Idaho casino offers glimpse of gambling’s future
The video gaming machines were whirring, buzzing and chiming at the Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel on a recent afternoon — familiar sounds amid an otherwise stark new reality.
Since the Worley, Idaho, casino reopened April 27, after being closed for more than a month because of the COVID-19 pandemic, its operations have looked very different.
Rather than waiting in line for all-you-can-eat crab and prime rib at the casino’s buffet — which is closed indefinitely — guests queued up at the main entrance, standing 6 feet apart, to have their temperature taken before coming inside.
L.A. County eyes July 4 to reopen economy
Los Angeles officials set their eyes on a new target for reopening the country’s most populace county — July 4.
“We have to do a lot of things right so we can actually get to that date,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. “I think the reality is that we are going to really aim together to get there as quickly as possible, but we’re going to pay attention to the data and science.”
Acknowledging that residents are growing impatient with California’s safer-at-home restrictions, officials said they hope to reopen the economy sooner than later. It will only be possible, however, if residents continue to follow health guidelines, such as practicing social distancing and wearing masks in public.
“Everyone is fatigued and I think we all feel like enough is enough,” Ferrer said. “I wish the virus said enough is enough, also.”
L.A. County announced 1,183 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the county’s total to 39,573. California has more than 82,000 cases across the state, according to NBC News counts.
Military will make swabs for COVID-19 tests at Navy shipyard in Maine
The arm of the U.S. military that develops medical products to protect service members has joined with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, to produce nasal swabs needed for coronavirus testing.
The U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity (USAMMDA) and the Navy shipyard have agreed to produce the swabs via 3-D printing. The shipyard has the capacity to print up to 10,000 swabs per day.
The swabs are intended to be used by the Defense Department for nasopharyngeal diagnostic testing for COVID-19.
The shipyard has already used 3-D printing to make face shields for protection from the coronavirus.
New Jersey gym opens for second day in defiance of state order
A gym in New Jersey opened for a second day Tuesday in defiance of the governor’s stay-at-home order.
A crowd of supporters erupted into chants of “U.S.A.” at Atilis Gym in Bellmawr when it first reopened shortly after 8 a.m. Monday, two months after Gov. Phil Murphy announced an order closing fitness centers, casinos, concert venues and movie theaters to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The police department in Bellmawr, about 10 miles southeast of Philadelphia in Camden County, said in a statement that gym owners Frank Trumbetti and Ian Smith were both charged on a summons with a disorderly person’s offense, the statement said.
But despite the charges, the business opened again Tuesday.
