6/4/20

Today Penny had a visit from the vet. Dr. Dorian makes house calls rather than you having to come to him. Last night I had to take an exceptionally long route to get to church due to protests. While I believe that protests should be held in locations where they do not impact others from going about their daily lives, I have absolutely no tolerance for looting and destruction of other people’s property. To me people who loot and destroy other people’s property are nothing but low life criminals who are only trying to satisfy their greed. These riots are only hurting local community members who have already been hurt by the COVID-19 virus and lockdown. If San Luis Obispo’s mayor, Heidi Harmon, wants to participate in these protests she should step down as mayor because she is not looking out for the community but rather following her own liberal agenda.

Today the county reported 9 new cases of COVID-19 bringing the counties total to 288 confirmed cases. Health officials indicated that 4 people are hospitalized, with 3 in ICU, 24 people are recovering at home, and 259 people have recovered from the virus. There has been one death in the county due to the virus.

North County has 183 cases of coronavirus, South County has 61 cases and the rest of the county has 44 confirmed cases. By age people 18 to 49 account for 137 of the COVID-19 cases, while those between the ages of 50 to 64 account for 72 of the cases, those over 65 years old add 49 more cases, while those 17 and under account for 30 cases.

Some business owners across the Central Coast are beginning to board up their windows after protests.

Businesses in the heart of Downtown San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles started taking the extra measure as early as Tuesday.

“Actually, it was a really hard decision for us to do that,” said Jeanette Lopez, Remax Parkside Real Estate Office Manager. “I thought man, we live in Paso Robles.”

Located on 12th Street, the company boarded up just before 5 Tuesday evening, sending staff home early.

“Just seeing what happened in San Luis the night before we just thought, you know what, better safe than sorry. Lots of glass, a lot of computers, a lot of documents here. It’s a real estate office,” Lopez said.

The office took the boards down Wednesday morning following Tuesday’s peaceful protest.

“I thought one broken glass, $1,000. A couple boards, 250 bucks,” Lopez explained.

Down the street, Siegel’s Jewelry also put up wooden protection.

“We were advised to board up and close until everything subsides,” said Ken Siegel, President of Siegel’s Jewelry.

The shop, like many others, opened weeks ago after being closed for months due to COVID-19 to only close again.

“It’s a major revenue loss,” Siegel said.

The business says it hopes to reopen Friday morning.

“I think it’s going to be major right now that the local support is going to be the biggest influence on keeping small businesses going,” Siegel added.

As for when the other shops will take down their boards, that’s to be determined.

The San Luis Obispo City Council has adopted a supplemental budget for 2020-21 that considers the economic impacts of COVID-19.

Officials say the city has experienced a significant revenue shortfall estimated at approximately $8.6 million as a result of the pandemic.

To address that shortfall, the city has placed a hold on hiring, purchasing, and travel not directly supporting essential services, temporarily closed facilities and programs, and furloughed 200 part-time temporary employees. All city departments have also reduced their operational budgets.

“Today, we find ourselves in unprecedented and challenging times due to the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the City’s ability to deliver the services, programs and projects the community values most,” City Manager Derek Johnson said in a statement. “Despite the challenges, we were able to present a balanced budget and now our number one priority is to focus on economic and social recovery and to build resiliency for the future so all community members can recover and thrive together.”

Once again liberals are more concerned about their agenda rather than taking care of the needs of the community as the city council appropriated $140,000 of new funding toward programs to support diversity, equity, and inclusion programs despite significant budget short falls.

As the nation deals with protests and riots in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd while in police custody, religious leaders are trying to offer hope.

Brian Gibson, founder of the Peaceably Gather movement and pastor of His Church, is holding a rally at the National Mall June 7, “in a united call for an end to the riots.”

“I believe the church is essential and it’s absolutely the answer to get us through this trying time in America,” Gibson told Fox News. “The church is the healing balm that puts us back together.”

Gibson gathered with African American, Latino and white pastors in Louisville and five other cities Tuesday where protests are happening.

He’s calling for others to join his PPP Plan, which includes prayer, preaching and partnership between suburban and urban churches.

“Jesus heals. Jesus helps. Jesus saves,” Gibson, who plans to preach in Washington, D.C., this Sunday, said.

“This confusion we see right now, this hatred we see right now, the violence we see right now, it’s not an answer,” he concluded. “Our message is a message of love, a message of peace, it’s the message of Jesus and it cures all real pains and problems in life.”

The pastor believes taking the church “out of play” for 12 weeks under coronavirus stay-at-home orders has allowed “evil” and “wickedness” to come into the lives of Americans that “wouldn’t have been here if the people of God were praying together.”

Several prominent pastors and faith leaders discussed race in their messages over the weekend.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, joined several Christian leaders across the nation in a statement of solidarity with African Americans, calling for justice and reform.

“We come together for the purpose of confronting once again the giant of bigotry and racism with the stones of righteousness and justice,” Rodriguez said. “This giant of racism must come down!”