6/25/20

Today I met with two other church members who also live alone and visited with them while Penny ran around, played, and visited.

San Luis Obispo County Health Department reported 16 new cases of COVID-19 today, bringing the county’s total to 489 confirmed cases. Officials indicate ten people are hospitalized, including three patients who are in the ICU, 118 people are recovering at home and 360 people have recovered. San Luis Obispo County has had one death attributed to COVID-19.

The health department reports that a total of 19,593 coronavirus tests have been conducted so far at both the public health lab and at private labs. Free coronavirus tests are currently available in Grover Beach and San Luis Obispo. Appointments are required at all locations.

Health officials say 239 of the county’s total cases are the result of the patient having direct contact with a person who tested positive for the virus, up 16 cases from yesterday; 163 cases are attributed to community spread, up 14 cases; and, 61 cases are the result of travel outside the county; 26 cases are still under investigation.

The cities with the highest number of cases are, Paso Robles with 148 cases, Atascadero with 64 cases, Nipomo with 62 cases, and San Luis Obispo with 58 cases. California Men’s Colony report that 11 inmates have tested positive for the virus.

For more information on the county’s COVID-19 response, visit readyslo.org.

by Karen Velie

The city of San Luis Obispo tallied some of the taxpayer costs related to a handful of recent protests. Those expenses come to $253,238, and do not include all the costs.

One of the primary goals of the protests is to shift a portion of police department funding to social services. However, officer overtime costs related to five days of protests has exceeded $176,000 at a time the city is facing budget shortfalls related to the coronavirus.

In response to a records request, the city provided partial costs for the five protests that occurred from May 31 through June 5. The costs include officer hours, management hours, barrier material, and food and drinks.

On June 1, protesters blocked traffic on Highway 101, and later engaged in a standoff with officers near the police station. During the protests that followed, officers guarded on-ramps and off-ramps to keep the protesters off Highway 101.

While the number of protests has slowed, protests are continuing, with another protest planned for this evening at 7:45 p.m.

Cal Poly released more information about its plans for fall quarter.

The university is encouraging students to register for fall classes as soon as possible. The fall class schedule is now available for viewing and registration opens on June 29.

Cal Poly is planning to present classes in three categories: In-person – 15% of the university’s 4,300+ courses that include labs and hands-on activities that cannot be taught virtually; Synchronous Virtual Courses that would be eligible for a return to in-person classes if health conditions allow; Asynchronous Virtual – All-virtual classes

The university says any classes in the “Synchronous Virtual” category that are able to return to in-person instruction will also continue to be offered virtually for students who cannot or choose not to take in-person classes. Faculty and staff will also be given the option to work remotely.

Cal Poly is also making some changes to the schedule around the Thanksgiving holiday. Starting November 23, classes and final exams will be all-virtual through the end of the quarter, with the exception of a limited number of in-person classes and projects.

School officials say these changes were made to avoid having large numbers of people on campus at what is typically the start of the annual flu season and a potential second wave of coronavirus infections. Cal Poly is also canceling its winter commencement ceremony with the hope of having an in-person celebration in 2021 for graduates from June 2020, December 2020, and June 2021.

School officials say they are still working on plans for on-campus housing for the fall.

As for Cal Poly’s new-student orientation programs, SLO Days and WOW, plans are in the works to offer a combination of small-group, in-person activities and virtual events.

Christian figures and symbols — including Jesus Christ himself — have become the target of hate and vandalism as protests continue across the nation.

What initially began as a campaign against Confederate figures after George Floyd’s ‘s police-related death in May has expanded to activists forcibly tearing down or calling for the toppling of monuments to former U.S. presidents, , saints, abolitionists, and other figures.

Earlier this week, Washington, D.C. protesters vandalized St. John’s Episcopal Church, located across from the White House where President Trump held up a Bible after it was burned by vandals. Demonstrators said it was a way of scoring restitution for slave owners who were Episcopalian, the Washington Examiner reports.

The president promised to sign an executive order by the end of the week to protect public statues and federal monuments, addressing the issue Wednesday.

“They’re looking at Jesus Christ, they’re looking at George Washington, they’re looking at Abraham Lincoln, they’re looking at Thomas Jefferson,” Trump said during a news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda in the White House’s Rose Garden. “It’s not going to happen.”

Far-left activist Shaun King on Monday said all images depicting Jesus as a “white European” should be torn down because they are a form of “white supremacy” and “racist propaganda.”

In a series of tweets, King said all imagery, including “murals and stained-glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends,” should be taken down.

Critics argue that cultures other than white Europeans have depicted Jesus in ways that resemble the local community. For example, Ethiopia depicts Jesus as black dating back 1,500 years and images of Jesus appearing Asian can be found through the Far East.

Over the weekend, protesters in California tore down a statue of Junipero Serra, a Spanish priest whom Pope Francis recognized as a saint in 2015.

After the Serra statue was knocked down in San Francisco, Catholic Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone issued a statement defending the priest and calling it “mob rule, a troubling phenomenon that seems to be repeating itself throughout the country” and the Spanish Embassy also defended Serra asking that the “rich shared history be protected, always with the utmost respect for the debates currently taking place.”

Ahead of King’s tweets about taking down Jesus statues, American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp tweeted Sunday: “Jesus statues are next. It won’t end. Pray for the USA.”

Constitutional law attorney and senior legal advisor to the Trump 2020 campaign, Jenna Ellis, went “on record” Monday to say in a tweet: “If they try to cancel Christianity, if they try to force me to apologize or recant my Faith, I will not bend, I will not waver, I will not break.”

“On Christ the solid Rock I stand,” she added. “And I’m proud to be an American.”

Even if activists are successful in removing the image of Christ from parts of society, former governor of Arkansas and ordained minister Mike Huckabee ultimately believes this would only serve to strengthen Christians’ faith.

“You can take down the images and the art of depicting Jesus, but you can never take the true spirit of Jesus Christ out of the lives of his followers. And historically, under oppression and persecution, the true faith begins to show even more dramatically. It’s because in the midst of darkness, light becomes more obvious,” Huckabee said.