Ninth Circuit Court Violates its Own Rules; Overturns its 3-Judge Panel’s Decision on LAUSD Covid Vax Mandate

September 8, 2025 By Katy Grimes Leave a Comment

The CDC told us that the shots don’t stop transmission or infection, so how do they protect the public health?

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just delivered a decision in a multi-year Covid-vaccine mandates case that lowered the bar on legal decisions, violated 120 years of juris prudence, misinterpreted Jacobson v. Massachusetts, a Supreme Court case from 1905 about the smallpox,  and contradicted recent United States Supreme Court decisions.

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Leslie Manookian, a 20+ year health freedom advocate and founder of the Health Freedom Defence Fund, filed suit against the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2021 following LAUSD terminating 1,000 teachers and staff, for declining to take the COVID vaccines.

LAUSD first tried to mandate the COVID vaccine when the shot was introduced, Manookian told the Globe. “We sued in 2021, and they rescinded the mandate the next day.” However, that was not the end of it.

“In July 2021, as the case was working its way through the system, LAUSD represented to our attorney and in a brief filed with the court, that there ‘is no mandate’ and that LAUSD had no intention of issuing a mandate. The court accepted this representation in dismissing the case as not ‘ripe’ on July 27, 2021. Thus, if there is no mandate, the lawsuit is not ripe.”

“Seventeen days later LAUSD issued a COVID vaccine mandate,” Manookian said.

So they filed suit again. Manookian said the lawsuit filed by HFDF, on behalf of California Educators for Medical Freedom (CAEMF), and individual plaintiffs challenged the Los Angeles Unified School District’s COVID-19 injection mandate for all teachers and staff as a condition of employment because it violates the employees’ liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which includes rights of personal autonomy, self-determination, bodily integrity, and the right to reject medical treatment.

“We discovered that LAUSD had not been forthright with the District Court during the first case when it claimed there ‘is no mandate.’”

“According to depositions taken during the course of the second case, LAUSD Chief Human Resource Officer Ileana Davalos stated that ‘they were drafting a mandate in the first half of July 2021,’ demonstrating that LAUSD had not been telling the truth about the mandates with the court in the first case.”

Manookian said the mandate was a violation of privacy under the due process clause of the Constitution, and it was also “arbitrary” because the CDC had already admitted that the shots do not stop transmission of COVID-19. “So it’s a medicine or a theraputic, and not a vaccine,” she said.

Teachers lost their jobs for refusing the experimental vaccine, and some were relegated to online teaching and left in limbo, Manookian said. Teachers were told their religious beliefs didn’t matter, or their medical needs didn’t matter. “Some have had adverse reactions to other shots. They’ve been denied the the ability to protect themselves and their religious beliefs. They’ve been fired for doing so, or were just cast aside.”

The district court ruled against the LAUSD plaintiffs, Health Freedom Defense Fund.

In January 2023 the Health Freedom Defence Fund appealed that decision. In June 2024 a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of plaintiffs (Health Freedom Defense Fund), overturning the district court and remanding the case back to the district court.

Manookian explained the 3-judge panel’s 2024 decision to the Globe:

“Reversing the decision of the Central District of California in Los Angeles, the Ninth Circuit majority held that, first, the case was not mooted by LAUSD’s rescission of the mandate after oral argument last September, 2023. The majority called out LAUSD’s gamesmanship for what it was – a bald-faced attempt at avoiding an adverse ruling by trying to create an issue of mootness.

Unfortunately for LAUSD, they had already done this once in the trial court. Applying the voluntary cessation doctrine, the majority doubted LAUSD’s sincerity in rescinding the mandate immediately after an unfavorable oral argument in September of last year.”

Attorney Julie Hamill broke down the decision:

“Much like LADPH and other authoritarian government agencies, LAUSD had a pattern of withdrawing and then reinstating its vaccination policies. According to the Court, this pattern was enough to keep the case alive. “The record supported a strong inference that LAUSD waited to see how the oral argument in this court proceeded before determining whether to maintain the Policy or to go forward with a pre-prepared repeal option. LAUSD expressly reserved the option to again consider imposing a vaccine mandate. Accordingly, LAUSD has not carried its heavy burden to show that there is no reasonable possibility that it will again revert to imposing a similar policy.” The mootness argument was rejected.

Then, we get to the real juice. “[T]he district court misapplied the Supreme Court’s decision in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), in concluding that the Policy survived rational basis review. Jacobson held that mandatory vaccinations were rationally related to preventing the spread of smallpox. Here, however, plaintiffs allege that the vaccine does not effectively prevent spread but only mitigates symptoms for the recipient and therefore is akin to a medical treatment, not a “traditional” vaccine. Taking plaintiffs’ allegations as true at this stage of litigation, plaintiffs plausibly alleged that the COVID-19 vaccine does not effectively “prevent the spread” of COVID-19. Thus, Jacobson does not apply.”

Click here to read the full article in the California Globe

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Shawn Ryan Podcast: Gavin Newsom Tries to Falsify His 3-Years of Covid Lockdowns

July 18, 2025 By Staff 2 Comments

Ryan exposes Newsom yet again as a compulsive liar

California Governor Gavin Newsom must adhere to the phrase “all publicity is good publicity” which suggests that any attention, whether positive or negative, is better than being ignored.

Californians try to ignore the annoying, narcissistic governor, so he’s reaching out beyond his usual purview, doing podcasts with myriad big-name podcasters. But these interviews don’t make Newsom appear genuine or sincere. His track record as governor is shameful.

And while Newsom keeps his PR flaks busy remaking his image, he really should be feeling some level of embarrassment or shame. But that takes a healthy psyche, as embarrassment is supposed to make people feel badly about their mistakes, so that they learn not to repeat the error. Feeling shame is a “self-conscious emotion” together with pride, embarrassment, jealousy and guilt are emotions Gavin Newsom appears to be lacking.

On a recent podcast, host Shawn Ryan asked Gov. Gavin Newsom about his handling of the pandemic, and his decisions to lock down the entire state of California during the Covid flu.

“What are some of the things during Covid that maybe were a mistake?” Ryan asked the governor. Newsom said “we were worried it was airborne, and about people being outside,” as if that ludicrous notion wasn’t dispelled almost as quickly as it was proposed. “And we realized then, after the fact, ‘what the hell were we doing shutting down the beaches, and open areas?’” Newsom said.

California was locked down for three years, not three months. California Governor Gavin Newsom was the first governor in the nation to order a state fully locked down, and he extended out mask mandates and school and business lockdowns beyond all other states.

“Do you think some of the restrictions you put in place created a mental health crisis… by being locked up, by not being outdoors?” Ryan asked. “Oh c’mon man, of course,” Newsom replied, dislocating his shoulder to pat himself on the back. His new line is “we didn’t know.”

Gavin is now attempting to impersonate a compassionate human being and moderate politician.

He had no real answers for Shawn Ryan. Newsom flailed his jazz hands and talked in circles until Ryan moved on to another topic.

Newsom locked down the entire state of California for three years, nearly 1,095 days, claiming it was because of the Covid flu. Newsom ordered “non-essential” businesses to shut down. Newsom ordered day cares, K-12 schools and colleges and universities shut down. He ordered churches to shut down. He shut down restaurants, and even cancelled outdoor dining. California looked as if a nuclear bomb had dropped and wiped out the population but left the infrastructure standing.

Newsom had mountains of sand dumped into skate parks and playgrounds so kids could not use the equipment, and had basketball nets removed.

Newsom ordered indoor and outdoor masking and mandated the covid shot on babies and children, and all Californians, and then extorted those who wanted to go back to school and work with the shot – no shot, no work or school.

For the first time in history, healthy people were locked down by government tyrants like Gavin Newsom during the Covid flu.

Governor Newsom had Californians arrested for attempting to take an outdoor run. He arrested a lone paddle-boarder in Southern California for daring to visit an empty beach.

Governor Gavin Newsom’s lockdowns made little or no difference – other than to destroy years of kids’ education and kill off as many of the state’s small businesses as possible.

We know who the chief California tyrant is… he told us who he was every day during the COVID outbreak with his freakish television appearances demanding we “stay safe, stay home,” “shelter-in-place” for our own good… while he moved about freely; while his life went on relatively normally, vacationing, dining out with friends, traveling.

Gov. Newsom’s actions were undemocratic, authoritarian, autocratic, oppressive and tyrannical.

Click here to read the full article in the California Globe

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Gavin Newsom On the Run From His COVID Lockdown Record: He Should Never Again Hold Elected Office

December 29, 2023 By Katy Grimes 10 Comments

Remember that for the first time in history, healthy people were locked down during the worldwide Coronavirus scare

“A sable cloud turns forth its silverlining on the night,” John Milton wrote in Comus in 1634. We have simplified this to “every cloud has a silver lining,” meaning even the worst situations have some element of hope, some enlightenment or some other redeeming quality.

We have that “silverlining” with the COVID virus outbreak and subsequent lockdowns, business closures, school lockdowns, and mask and vaccine mandates ordered by government tyrants.

We know who the tyrants are… they told us who they were every day during the COVID outbreak – governors, state and local politicians, and public health officials, with their freakish television appearances demanding we “stay safe, stay home,” for our own good… while they moved about freely; while their lives went on relatively normally.

They ordered us to “mask up” despite knowing that masks don’t really prevent the spread of a virus. The Globe did an interview in January 2022 with Dr. Peter McCullough, an internist, cardiologist and epidemiologist, and one of America’s leading physicians on the early treatment of COVID-19, in which he explained at that time:

“There have been over one dozen studies of general masking which have shown it is basically not effective. I think the only people that need masks… I am a cardiologist and I wear a mask with patients.”

“Dentists, dental hygienists – and we wear them in the operating room. It’s not to prevent the spread of COVID, but it stops sneezes or coughs,” Dr. McCullough added. “But in general masks don’t work.”

They mandated vaccines as a condition to be able to return to work, despite that they were mRNA injections and not true vaccines, and despite that many in the U.S. already had contracted COVID and didn’t need a shot for protection from the virus.

They ordered children and babies be vaccinated despite that the virus did not infect children, nor were children vectors of the virus.

California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the state locked down first in the country and extended out mask mandates and school and business lockdowns beyond all other states. This made little or no difference – other than to destroy two years of kids’ education and kill off as many of the state’s small businesses as possible.

There are those who now say many of the tyrants never even got the mRNA injection – they took a placebo.

We are hearing a lot of talk about the country being divided. The divisions were spurred during the COVID pandemic when the country was quite divided on how best to handle the virus.

In the early days of the pandemic when it was clear people were contracting the virus and there was a flu outbreak, by March 2020, one after another states began to issue lockdown orders, business closures, travel restrictions, and ordered people to stay home. But California Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first governor to issue a lockdown order of the entire state.

As the lockdowns wore on, Gov. Newsom was increasingly diabolical, offering an end date to the masking and lockdowns, only to either fully retract it claiming “positive tests were up,” or to attach a caveat – like the unvaccinated would have to continue to wear masks indefinitely.

In June 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would end his COVID stay-at-home order, business lockdowns, and school closures after more than 15 months… but he also said a vaccination verification system would be coming in short order – which is to say, he wanted Californians to use an electronic vaccine passport to gain entrance to businesses, work and events.

The purpose of such an electronic system was to “allow” businesses to confirm that their customers have received their shots. And those who had not taken a vaccine would be required to continue to wear masks, as a form of a “Scarlet Letter.”

As the Globe reported, “It’s not the responsibility of businesses to confirm their clientele have been vaccinated for the coronavirus, any more than they are required to make sure their clientele have received an annual flu shot, or are boosting their immune systems by taking Echincea during cold and flu season. That’s not the job of the business, or the government; it’s solely the job of the individual.”

Newsom’s lifting of mask mandates for vaccinated individuals was just another cruel strategy to coerce compliance of the vaccination. “Get the vaccine and you can have your freedom; you can go back to normal,” was the plan. “Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton even came out and tweeted, ‘Get vaccinated or wear a mask.’ That’s it. These are the choices.”

“Coerced Compliance is not Freedom in Gov. Newsom’s Staged Re-Opening of California” the Globe reported.

What Newsom was proposing was a version of a social segregation system.

Remember that for the first time in history, healthy people were locked down during the worldwide Coronavirus scare – lockdowns of homes, schools and “non-essential” businesses, and governors issued mask mandates and vaccine mandates.

The medical industry set aside all rationale, ignored their own training, as hospitals got on board with the dubious protocols recommended by the CDC and National Institutes of Health, according to Dr. Peter McCullough. Hospitals received hundreds of billions in funding for COVID patients for the full treatment including the controversial Remdesivir, ventilation, and eventual death. According to Alex Berenson:

“Hospital profit margins in 2020 and 2021 more than doubled compared to 2019, researchers reported in JAMA Health Forum last month. In all, hospitals made at least $16 billion more in profits during the two Covid years than they did in 2019, the researchers found.

…the 20 percent bonus they received for Covid patients and other special funding more than made up the difference for most hospitals.

The most profitable 600 American hospitals each posted annual operating income of at least $38 million during Covid…”

As it turned out, California wasn’t really reopening in 2020, 2021 or even 2022, as the governor frequently teased. And that was because the state was still under a statewide declaration of emergency, meaning Newsom retained his emergency authority to alter or suspend state laws – indefinitely. Which he did with great frequency. A state judge even ruled that Newsom abused his emergency authority when he issued an executive order for all voters to get mail-in ballots for the election – his own recall election, with many believe was manipulated.

“Indefinite” it felt; such cruelty from one man elected by the people of California. How quickly Gavin Newsom went from elected governor of one state to Totalitarian Tyrant.

As Totalitarian Tyrant, Gov. Newsom issued 58 executive orders – “one-man-rule” decrees – during his statewide lockdown.

The governor/Tyrant continued to require face coverings for unvaccinated people, in some version of a social segregation system, pitting citizens against one another.

A few other governors followed suit with imperious stay-at-home orders, “non-essential” business closures, masks and vaccines – Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Gov. David Ige of Hawaii, Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, and Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington.

Remember those names.

After 22 states had already lifted mask and distancing restrictions, the CDC sort of reversed its mask order in May 2021 and announced that face masks would no longer be mandatory… for those who’ve been vaccinated…

Other states chose to remain open, allow the people to move about freely, run their businesses, send the kiddies to school, and treat those most vulnerable carefully.

USA Today reported, “Gov. Kristi Noem has repeatedly said she won’t issue a statewide mask requirement or lockdown and has voiced doubts about health experts who say face coverings prevent infections from spreading. Noem’s ‘Back to Normal Plan’ laid out actions for residents, employers, schools and health care providers once four criteria categories are met, including a downward trajectory of documented coronavirus cases for 14 days in an area with sustained community spread.”

Gov. Newsom’s choice was totalitarian, dictatorial, arbitrary and overbearing.

The other choice – the decision to remain open – embodied the American spirit, allowing people to assess their own risk.

California was a special case with Gov. Gavin Newsom first at the trough – particularly with Dr. Anthony Fauci endorsing stay at home orders in all 50 states, restricting people from leaving their homes for anything other than “essential activities” (which did not include going to work for most).

Within a day of the lockdown, the state of 40 million people looked like it had been deserted.

Only seven states – Utah, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Wyoming, and Arkansas – did not order statewide lockdowns on schools and businesses, or force people to stay in their homes.

“Pro-lockdown states like New York, California, and Massachusetts saw catastrophic unemployment numbers, 15.9%, 13.3%, and 16.1% respectively, alongside high COVID-19 death rates,” AEIR reported in August 2020.

“Instead of being able to live out the pandemic in relative peace, the lockdown policies brought about economic devastation…”

California lost 35.9 percent of “non-essential” businesses, which remained closed after being ordered to. More than one-third of restaurants permanently closed. Many owners were unable to pay their bills or feed their families while Home Depot, Costco and Walmart remained open, deemed “essential” by Gov. Newsom.

And Gov. Newsom was caught living his best life, dining at the French Laundry in Napa, enjoying multiple vacations out of the country while he locked down Californians. In Feb. 2022 he starred in “MaskGate” at the NFC Championship game in Los Angeles – despite his own face mask mandates. 

In California, the New York Times reported 40,000 small businesses had closed by September 2020, in an article about California voters’ recall election of Gov. Newsom.

By 2021, the color-coded tier system Newsom put in place in 2020 which set occupancy limits at businesses and imposed other rules, was still in place. USA Today kept a running tally of the states and their varying stages of lockdowns, mandates and re-openings. By June 2022, when they ended their series because nearly all states were re-opened, California was not. Their reporting shows that most states lifted the bulk of the restrictions in 2020 and some straggled into 2021.

But because the media was never shut down, California reporters just couldn’t fathom the toll lockdowns took on small business owners, on families, on children locked out of school – on people not allowed to go to work. Consequently, the analysis and critique of Gov. Newsom’s dictatorial policies was largely left to about three of the state’s political reporters.

It’s not as if Gov. Newsom didn’t have access to experts who could assess the long and short term effects of the virus and lockdowns. But he chose not to access these experts at Stanford, UC Irvine, and practicing physicians who saw patients, and were witnessing the human damage of his “one-man-rule” policies.

Click here to read the full article in California Globe

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COVID-19 States of Emergency Are Ending. What Does That Mean For You?

February 22, 2023 By John Wooldfolk Leave a Comment

Answers about expiring emergency declarations

California is poised to record its 100,000th COVID-19 death. But at the end of this month, the Golden State — the first in the nation to lock down because of the virus — will end its pandemic state of emergency.

A few months later, on May 11, the federal government will halt its COVID public health emergency.

In many ways, it’s a symbolic victory over a virus whose threat has eased after more than two years of successive waves of infections, hospitalizations and 1.1 million U.S. deaths.

But the declaration also has implications for detection and treatment of a disease that continues to kill more than 400 Americans a day and to mutate in ways that could potentially lead to more virulent outbreaks. Here’s what we know about the ending of the states of emergency.

Q: Why is California’s COVID-19 State of Emergency ending Feb. 28?

A: Gov. Gavin Newsom, criticized for extending the state of emergency he declared March 4, 2020, even after lifting mask and social distancing requirements last year, announced in October that the declaration would be lifted this month. He said the extra time would allow for “flexibility to handle any potential surge” in cases over the winter and give local governments and health care providers time to plan for the coming changes.

Q: What did California’s state of emergency do?

A: Since first declaring the state of emergency, Newsom has issued 74 executive orders with 596 operative provisions. Of those, just 27 provisions remain in effect until Feb. 28. The provisions loosen state rules to streamline health care delivery and response, like allowing pharmacists and pharmacist technicians to conduct COVID-19 tests.

Q: Might we still need some of those rules?

A: Newsom has asked lawmakers for two statutory changes that would continue some provisions. One would continue to allow nurses to dispense COVID-19 treatments, and another would maintain the ability of laboratory workers to solely process COVID-19 tests.

Q: What does the federal Public Health Emergency do and what will change when it ends May 11?

A: Much like California’s state of emergency, the declaration in effect since January 2020 waived regulations to allow more flexibility in the health care system. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, many of those provisions have since been made permanent or extended, while others are no longer needed with reported cases down 92% and hospitalizations and deaths down 80% since the peak of the omicron variant surge at the end of January 2022.

There will be some changes. The requirement for private insurance companies to cover COVID-19 tests without cost-sharing will end. State Medicaid programs won’t have to provide test coverage after Sept. 30, 2024. Medicare Part B enrollees will continue to get free laboratory-conducted COVID-19 tests when ordered by a provider, but will no longer get free over-the-counter tests.

But federally purchased vaccines and treatments like Paxlovid must be provided at no cost as long as those supplies last, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Q: How will ending both states of emergency affect access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments in the state?

A: The California Department of Public Health said health insurers here must provide enrollees free vaccines, testing and therapeutics from any licensed provider, including those outside the health plan network until Nov. 11. After that, enrollees may face cost-sharing or coinsurance payments for vaccines, testing or therapeutics from an out-of-network provider.

Q: What about the uninsured?

A:  Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, said in a recent Twitter thread that “for nearly all Americans, vaccines will remain free.” For the uninsured, he said that “we are committed to ensuring that vaccines and treatments are accessible and not prohibitively expensive for uninsured Americans.” How that will happen he left unclear, adding only: “more details to follow.”

Q: Will I still be able to get boosters or tests at the local mass vaccination and testing sites?

A: Those are being wound down. Local mass testing and vaccine sites are closing by the end of the month, but county health departments say they will continue to provide vaccination, testing and medical services to their patients.

Q: What about access to COVID-19 information, vaccines and tests at schools?

A: Oakland Unified said it will continue asking students to report COVID-19 illness and to advise them of isolation and return-to-school policies, and that it will continue to make high-quality masks and rapid at-home tests available at all schools. But the district will no longer notify classrooms of a positive case in the classroom. There will be one regional testing site a day at different schools with rapid tests. A vaccine requirement for volunteers is being dropped.

Click here to read the full article in the Mercury News

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LA County Inches Closer To Mandatory Indoor Mask Mandate

December 3, 2022 By Evan Symon 10 Comments

‘No one wants masks again’

Los Angeles County inched closer to returning to an indoor mask mandate on Thursday, with the rising number of COVID-19 cases moving the County back into the “medium” COVID activity level.

Since the repeal of state and local indoor mask mandates in the late winter and early spring of this year, fluctuating COVID-19 transmission rates, as well as recent new case rises and new variants, have had counties considering a return of some form of mask mandate. During the summer, Alameda County brought their mandate back briefly, with LA County nearly doing so but dropping plans to do so at the last minute due to both a turnaround of new cases and enormous public outcry.

A dip in cases during the fall quelled fears of a mandate for a time, but with the number of cases climbing again, LA County Public Health Department began to strongly recommend wearing masks indoors last month. The number of cases has continued to increase since. On November 21st, 1,123 new cases of COVID-19 were announced by LA Public Health. On Thursday, LA County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer  said that the number of new cases a day were over 2,700, with an average of 192 COVID-related hospital admissions, with Thursday’s total going well above that average with 4,493 new cases. Since November 1st, the average number of COVID infections a day has gone up 180%, with COVID hospital admissions up 200%.

“There is this common line of thinking that the pandemic is over and COVID is no longer of concern, but these numbers clearly demonstrate that COVID is still with us,” Ferrer said on Thursday. “Given both the increases in hospitalizations and the lack of certainty in the winter trajectory for COVID-19, continuing some common-sense mitigation strategies that we know work to limit transmission and illness, including masking and being up to date on vaccines and boosters, remains a very sensible approach.”

While the number of cases has pushed the county into the “medium” community level and a “high” level expected sometime in the next few weeks, Ferrer said that a mandate would not be put into effect until CDC thresholds were met. Specifically, a mandate would not happen until there was an average COVID admission rate of more than 10 out of 100,000 residents in the County and that 10% or more inpatient hospital beds had COVID patients.

“However, it does signal that case rates and hospitalizations are elevated, and we could be in the ‘high’ community level as soon as next week,” added Ferrer.

Many healthcare workers noted that reaching the CDC thresholds would take some time to meet, and would likely not be reached until after Christmas.

“If they are met, and that is still a big if, there would still be other County thresholds to meet, as well as a two week period to make sure those rates stayed that high,” Luisa Renteria, a nurse in Los Angeles who has assisted COVID patients since March 2020, told the Globe on Thursday. “That’s what stopped the mandate from returning this summer, and in all likelihood, would stop it again in, say, January or February.”

Click here to read the full article at the California Globe

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Schlok’s Is Finally Opening Its bagel Shop Next Week After ‘Bleeding Money’ Over S.F. Bureaucracy

February 26, 2022 By Janelle Bitker Leave a Comment

Despite San Francisco’s notorious bureaucratic red tape, a new destination for chewy, malty bagels is on track to open next week.

Schlok’s, the pandemic-born pop-up that used to sell out in minutes, opens its permanent shop at 1263 Fell St., near Broderick St. on March 2. It comes from James Lok, formerly a chef at Michelin-starred destinations like Benu and the Restaurant at Meadowood, and Zack Schwab, who also co-owns Pacific Heights bar the Snug.

Finally getting to this debut has been a bumpy journey. On Wednesday, Schlok’s shared a dramatic update on social media, saying it couldn’t open this week as planned because the Department of Building Inspection was still in the process of approving a three-sentence statement that was submitted on Feb. 7. It called on fans to contact San Francisco officials “to help them understand the extreme burden that continues to be placed on small businesses trying to open in this city.”

The Schlok’s space used to be a laundromat, so significant work was needed for the build-out. Toward the end of construction, Schwab said everything from plumbing to electrical seemed fine. But then the city needed clarification on a door Schlok’s installed. It took 10 business days to schedule another inspection and sign off on the door — too long for a small business, in Schwab’s opinion, but actually the target length of time for the Department of Building Inspection (DBI), according to spokesperson Patrick Hannan. He also noted that Schlok’s cancelled three previous inspections, though Schwab said that was because the inspector was on vacation.

At Wednesday’s inspection, DBI cleared Schlok’s to open, though the business still needs to complete more paperwork and two more inspections with the agency. Ultimately, Schlok’s couldn’t schedule its final health inspection until that door sign-off from DBI, which he hoped wouldn’t take two weeks because of its seeming simplicity. Every day of waiting resulted in “bleeding money,” Schwab said.

“When you’re pretty much done with your inspections, you have to start planning to ramp up your operations and open,” he said. “We hired five people in addition to our two managers who have been on salary for months now. We started ordering product.”

When Schlok’s first secured its Lower Haight space last April, Schwab was optimistic that the shop could open by September thanks to Proposition H, a measure aimed at streamlining the permitting process for small businesses. Despite his estimate being off by several months, he thinks Prop. H probably still helped considering the horror stories he’d heard in the past.

“But I think the issue was Prop. H only gets you so far,” he said. “It’s just getting those permits, then you’re just where everyone else finds themselves with the bureaucracy and delays and everything else that’s been so hard for small businesses.”

With the ordeal mostly behind them now, Schwab is eager for customers to visit next week. The modern bagel shop will bring the essentials to the Lower Haight: bags of fresh bagels ($3 each or $33 for a dozen), bagel sandwiches and schmears. But Lok’s take on these typically New York-style classics is unique, with vivid malty notes and a thin crust. Now operating out of shop designed to produce bagels and outfitted with new equipment, Schwab says the bagels are tasting better than ever.

Schlok’s will make its own schmears as well as cure and slice gravlax-style lox in-house. Coffee comes from San Francisco’s Saint Frank. Schwab said he’s expecting more demand than the shop can handle at first. To cut back on the inevitable lines, it’ll make most bagels available for pre-order online starting at 6:45 a.m.

Click here to read the full article at the SF Chronicle

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Omicron Surge Prompts Newport Beach To Close City Hall, Other Spots, To Public

January 4, 2022 By Eric Licas 2 Comments

Newport Beach’s City Hall, community centers and other spots will be mostly closed to the public beginning Monday, Jan. 3 amid the emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the surge of infections expected following the holiday season, officials said this weekend.

Omicron’s rapid spread has affected businesses, air travel, sports, entertainment and other aspects of life around the nation. COVID-19 cases and potential exposures skyrocketing in Orange County have sent people scrambling to get tested.

In Newport Beach, non-city employees will not be allowed into certain facilities. But all city services will still be conducted either over the phone, online or through drop-off services. People who need to submit physical documents or payments can deposit those into bins placed outside of City Hall, a workaround which had been used in “previous COVID protocols,” officials said in an announcement on the city’s website.

“We anticipate these protocols will be in place for at least two weeks, through mid-January,” Newport Beach officials said in the announcement. “However, we are carefully monitoring the COVID Omicron outbreak in consultation with Hoag Hospital and County health officials, and will adjust as necessary.”

Libraries will remain open but no in-person meetings will be allowed. Recreational classes hosted at the city’s community centers will continue as scheduled, but face coverings will be mandatory indoors and no spectators will be allowed.

The return of coronavirus-related closures came as a surprise, even to some city officials, Newport Beach spokesman John Pope said. He added that early estimates regarding the duration of the precautionary measures may be “optimistic.”

The decision to implement the restrictions was based on concerning data from county officials regarding the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.  It was made by City Manager Grace Leung as a growing number of city staff reported recent exposure to coronavirus, Pope said.

City leaders intend to “amplify the message of health professionals,” he said. They are urging everyone to get vaccinated, and advise those who are to get their booster shots.

This is at least the third time the coronavirus has prompted officials to temporarily bar the public from entering City Hall, Pope said. It, as well as community centers, playgrounds, houses of worship and other facilities were shuttered in the Summer of 2020 due to the spread of COVID-19.

Those previous closures each lasted about a month, Pope said. They followed guidance outlined in the stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom when lockdowns first went into place in 2020, more than a year before vaccines for the virus were approved for emergency use.

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On Omicron, Pols Must Resist Overreacting

December 3, 2021 By Editorial Board 6 Comments

There’s a new COVID variant and the world is freaking out.

Omicron was first found in South Africa, prompting President Biden to restrict travel from eight African countries. Japan, Israel and Morocco closed their borders. The UK is considering tighter mask and travel rules. New York declared a state of emergency.

Though Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, said omicron would “inevitably” appear in the United States, no cases have been detected yet.

Fauci also said it could take a few weeks for the global science community to learn just how serious omicron is, and urged caution. “We should not be freaking out,” Fauci said.

We agree.

It’s true that cases have been reported in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Australia, the UK, Austria and Italy, but scientists are not yet sure how contagious, how virulent and how vaccine-resistant omicron is. While variants of the coronavirus are cause for concern, the limited number of cases globally give little upon which to draw conclusions and even less reason for heavy-handed government responses.

On Twitter, Gov. Gavin Newsom said that California officials are “monitoring” what’s happening, and announced no new restrictions. Los Angeles County has consistently been more aggressive than Newsom in terms of COVID response, but has so far followed Newsom’s lead on omicron.

This measured, wait-and-see approach is wise.

We are much better off as a society now than during the early days of COVID-19. We enjoy high vaccination rates, broad access to boosters for high-risk populations, widespread natural immunity and the ongoing development and availability of new, effective treatments.

Individuals are also now well-experienced with adapting according to their level of risk without the government needing to tell them what to do.

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