Gov. Newsom Says Elon Musk’s Fight is with Alameda County, Not State. You don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows — or who’s feeling the heat.
In his press conference Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom attempted to distance himself from Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s threat to move his company headquarters and production facilities out of state because of Newsom’s statewide shutdown orders. Musk’s plant has been closed since mid-March.
On Saturday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened to move both the company headquarters and production facilities to Texas or Nevada if they were not allowed to reopen as soon as possible, as California Globe reported.
Tesla’s plant has been ordered to remain shut, even though all other car manufacturers in the US are allowed open, Musk said.
The billionaire CEO, who employs 10,000 at his Alameda plant, said Tesla would relocate its headquarters and future programs out-of-state, which elicited a “F*ck Musk” Twitter response from Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego).
And then Musk opened his Alameda plant Monday, against the governor’s lockdown order.
Newsom was asked in the press conference about the ongoing fight over the shutdown order Musk is threatening to move his company out of state over.
Gov. Newsom dodged the real issue – his Executive Order shutting down the entire state – and said the fight was between Musk and Alameda County, and not with the state. “I respect the counties,” Newsom said. “We recognize the localities.”
Except, several counties which have reopened have businesses that have been punished; the State is sending in agents from the California Department of State Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) to close down bars. And the state’s ABC was doing this without notifying the local authorities.
“My understanding is they’ve had some constructive conversation,” Newsom said about Musk and Alameda County. “It’s county-led enforcement. Alameda County health department will be following up with this.”
The conversation between Musk and Alameda County can’t be that constructive, because Musk sued Alameda County, and opened his plant Monday.
“Tesla has filed a lawsuit against Alameda County, California, where Tesla’s Fremont factory is,” Business Insider reported. “The factory has been closed since March 23, when Alameda County ordered it to shut down as part of social-distancing measures directed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.”
THAT’S PRETTY MUCH ANYWHERE YOU GO: Democrats to Austin Businesses: Drop Dead!
While the rest of Texas moves to open up, The People’s Republic of Austin seems determined to keep businesses down:
As Texans across the state suffer and struggle to provide food for their families under prolonged government-ordered shutdowns (even with the governor’s trickled reopening of businesses), one Central Texas county is continuing their lockdown into the summer.
On Friday, Democrats Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt extended their stay-at-home orders on citizens; Austin’s order will last until May 30, but the county’s order will drag on until June 15.
The order is an updated version of the officials’ original decree from March. It states, “All persons may leave their residences only for Essential Services and Essential Activities.”
The order prohibits all public and private gatherings, tells “non-essential” businesses to cease operating, and says all citizens over the age of six “shall wear some form of face covering” when going out in public.
Violating the order “may be punishable through criminal enforcement,” with citizens potentially being fined up to $1,000 or even thrown in jail for six months.
It is questionable what effect the order will have because it largely conflicts with Gov. Greg Abbott’s recently updated statewide order that allows for limited reopening. According to Abbott, local officials like Adler and Eckhardt cannot impose more burdensome guidelines than his statewide executive order.
Despite including criminal punishments in the order, the officials admitted their limitation, stating in the order numerous times that “no civil or criminal penalty will be imposed for failure to wear a face covering,” and that their punishments could be “limited by state order.”
Translation: “We don’t have any power, but we want Austin and Travis County businesses to know that we truly want to bankrupt them.” Because letting drug-using transients sleeping on the sidewalks wasn’t doing enough to drive away business.
(Speaking of bankruptcy, the lockdown seems to have claimed popular Austin restaurant Shady Grove.)
If all those burdens weren’t enough, Adler wants Austin businesses to keep a log of customer activities in their business.
h/t GR