Minnesota Candy Store Allowed to Re-Open Due to Personal Connection with Governor Walz

[Valin]

Alpha News

According to the store owner, Robert Wagner, he was able to personally meet with the staff of Governor Walz, which led to his store being deemed “essential.”

Willis Krumholz

May 11, 2020

A Minnesota candy store is re-opening, after its owner was able to personally contact the staff of Democratic Governor Tim Walz. 

“Minnesota’s Largest Candy Store,” the large yellow candy store located on Highway 169 in Jordan, Minnesota, was deemed to be “essential” and re-opened last Friday. 

According to the store owner, Robert Wagner, he was able to personally meet with the staff of Governor Walz, which led to his store being deemed “essential.” It is unclear how Wagner was able to contact Walz’s staff personally, but this may have started with a personal conversation between Wagner and Walz. It is also unclear how Walz and Wagner are personally connected. 

(Snip)

This has angered many other small business owners, who operate facilities which may only have 5 to 10 persons in them at a time, if customer-facing at all, but are still closed nevertheless. Others point out that weddings are being shut down with far less than 200 persons. Pictures posted to social media of the candy store after it opened showed rows upon rows of cars parked outside—filling the large parking lot. 

Walz is under pressure after extending his stay-at-home-order to May 18. Critics point out that estimates of hospitalizations and infections in Minnesota have vastly overshot reality. They also question the consistency of a state order that has disallowed medical procedures—such as one that would allow a little girl to breath easier—while allowing abortion-on-demand. 

(Snip)

____________________________________________________________________________________

 

[Valin]

‘We either open or close forever’: Ficus and Fig reopens in Burnsville despite Stay at Home order

One of many small businesses attempting to re-open, the store says it has sufficient safety measures in place

Jackie Renzetti

May 11 2020

 

The Burnsville boutique Ficus and Fig has opened to in-store customers, despite current state guidelines only allowing non-essential retailers to sell products curbside.

“We didn’t want to go out of business. It’s getting to be as simple as that,” co-owner Kelly Barker told BMTN.

(Snip)

[Valin]

May 13 2020

[Valin]

Northwoods business owner to state leaders: ‘You better kiss me, because you’re gonna miss me when I’m gone’

A Northwoods business owner was invited to Fox News to state his case on getting Minnesota businesses open after making a video plea to state leaders on social media Friday.

Shelley Anderson

May 13, 2020

In a video posted to Twitter on Friday evening, a Northwoods business owner wondered aloud if Minnesota state leaders have any common sense.

Jim ‘Red’ Knutson, owner of Jim’s Ash Trail Store in Orr, Minnesota, lamented indirectly to state leaders in the video posted on Twitter by his son, Jimmy.

(Snip)

“When we go to the mailbox, our bills are real,” Knutson said, “I’m very concerned that we’re going to have some real problems up here with businesses.” Knutston said they don’t have any people coming (for recreation), and the mines and paper mills are laying people off. “These are good people,” he said. “They want to work; they want to make a living.”

“You’ve got a better chance of being eaten by a bear or a timber wolf than you do of catching that virus,” Knutson said, in an apparent reference to camping in Voyageurs National Park, which is currently not allowed in response to the governor’s stay-at-home executive orders.

Recent Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) figures revealed that 99.24% of the state’s COVID-19 related deaths were residents of long-term care facilities or people with serious underlying conditions.

(Snip)

[Geee]

Pennsylvania auditor general probing ‘undue’ outside influence on business waivers

(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania’s auditor general said Thursday his office will investigate whether outside influence – from lobbyists or legislators – played a role in which businesses received waivers to stay open during the pandemic shutdown.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said he’s heard from confused business owners frustrated by the apparent inconsistencies in the state’s waiver decisions. The Department of Community and Economic Development received more than 42,000 applications between March 19 and April 3 for businesses petitioning for life-sustaining status during the coronavirus pandemic. A little over half received approval or clarification that an exemption was unnecessary.

 

Now, DePasquale said, his staff will focus on what impact communications with legislators and lobbyists had on the decisions DCED ultimately made. The question remains part of a larger probe into the overall process that DePasquale announced last month.

 

“Maybe it happened, maybe it did not,” he said. “But we are going to be examining that. If you are the same type of the business and one got a waiver and one didn’t … then one business is losing their livelihood because they didn’t hire a lobbyist.”

[Valin]

46 minutes ago, Geee said:

Pennsylvania auditor general probing ‘undue’ outside influence on business waivers

(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania’s auditor general said Thursday his office will investigate whether outside influence – from lobbyists or legislators – played a role in which businesses received waivers to stay open during the pandemic shutdown.

Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said he’s heard from confused business owners frustrated by the apparent inconsistencies in the state’s waiver decisions. The Department of Community and Economic Development received more than 42,000 applications between March 19 and April 3 for businesses petitioning for life-sustaining status during the coronavirus pandemic. A little over half received approval or clarification that an exemption was unnecessary.

 

Now, DePasquale said, his staff will focus on what impact communications with legislators and lobbyists had on the decisions DCED ultimately made. The question remains part of a larger probe into the overall process that DePasquale announced last month.

 

“Maybe it happened, maybe it did not,” he said. “But we are going to be examining that. If you are the same type of the business and one got a waiver and one didn’t … then one business is losing their livelihood because they didn’t hire a lobbyist.”

 

A Politician giving "Favors' to friends and supporters!

 

[Valin]

Keith Ellison Sues And Shuts Down Restaurant Owner Who Planned To Reopen

AG Ellison shut down restaurant owner who planned to reopen and will impose massive fines if the owner does, in fact, resume business.

Kyle Hooten

May 18, 2020

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison took legal action to stop a restaurant owner who planned to reopen for business before Governor Tim Walz’s shutdown expires.

Kris Schiffler owns all six locations of Shady’s Hometown Tavern. He says that if he doesn’t reopen, he may soon end up broke and homeless along with his employees who cannot afford to go without income for the full 77 days of Walz’s shutdowns, slated to end June 1.

“I can end up broke and on the street, just like 163 employees of mine are going to do the same thing in a little bit here if we don’t get operating,” Schiffler says, according to WCCO.

However, Ellison apparently has no compassion for Schiffler’s situation. The state AG published a press release over the weekend that announced legal action against both Shady’s and Schiffler personally and on Monday a court honored Ellison’s request to prevent Shady’s from reopening.

(Snip)

ENOUGH!

[Valin]

3 hours ago, Valin said:

Keith Ellison Sues And Shuts Down Restaurant Owner Who Planned To Reopen

AG Ellison shut down restaurant owner who planned to reopen and will impose massive fines if the owner does, in fact, resume business.

Kyle Hooten

May 18, 2020

 

ENOUGH!

 

 

Rural America Rebels Against the Madness

John Hinderaker

May 18, 2020

(Snip)

The conflict came to a head today at high noon in Albany. A crowd of hundreds of normal Minnesotans assembled outside Shady’s, showing their support for Schiffler and their desire to end the state’s irrational and destructive shutdown.

 

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Uprising in Garrison as Minnesota Business Owners Fight For Their Livelihoods

Anger and frustration are mounting among restaurant and bar owners throughout Minnesota.

Katherine Kersten

May 19, 2020

Anger and frustration are mounting among restaurant and bar owners throughout Minnesota. Many—especially those in Central Minnesota’s beautiful lakes vacation area—are watching their livelihoods slip away, due to Gov. Tim Walz’s repeated extensions of his coronavirus shutdown order.

Recently, 50 or so of these small business owners met in Garrison, in Crow Wing County, to discuss the possibility of opening their establishments despite the governor’s dictates. The pain they expressed radiates from the Brainerd Dispatch’s coverage of the meeting:

(Snip)

The meeting in Garrison is part of a growing movement to resist against the draconian measures the governor has imposed. “The call comes as more townships, cities and counties are passing resolutions or submitting letters to Walz pleading with him to reopen the remaining closed small businesses sooner,” according to the Dispatch.

Our nation is entering an unprecedented time, in which government overreach is increasingly difficult to reconcile with our status as a democracy. The number of positive coronavirus cases in Crow Wing County is negligible, according to the Minnesota Department of Health web site. Yet currently, in response, unchecked power in the executive branch is compelling small business owners to collaborate in their own economic suicide.

Here’s the most chilling thing: Small business owners who push back to feed their families may feel the punitive jackboot of the State.

(Snip)

[Geee]

Minnesota Governor Stonewalls Conservative Journalist

Minnesota governor Tim Walz has refused to grant a conservative journalist access to the state's daily coronavirus press briefings.

Scott Johnson, cofounder of the award-winning website PowerLine, has covered the state government's response to the pandemic in a daily series titled, "Coronavirus in One State." The posts regularly receive hundreds of comments from Minnesota residents. 

[Valin]

Workers cheered as they enter Smithfield pork plant in South Dakota

May 20, 2020

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Employees at a Smithfield pork processing plant in South Dakota where a coronavirus outbreak infected over 800 people were greeted at work Wednesday with thank-you signs, cheers and waves from about a dozen area residents.

“They're putting their health at risk just like the hospital workers are to continue on with this work, so I hope they feel appreciated,” said Becky Olson, a Sioux Falls resident who held a sign outside Smithfield's entrance.

(Snip)

 

 

[Valin]

Restaurateurs Warn That Nothing Short Of Full Reopening Will Save Businesses

Over half of Minnesota's hospitality businesses are expected to close forever as Governor Walz asks them to go without income for over 20% of 2020.

Kyle Hooten

May 21, 2020

Numerous resturants around Minnesota closed their doors permanently this week as some restaurant owners warn that a partial reopening will not be enough to sustain their businesses.

(Snip)

Walz originally ordered resturants to close their doors on March 17, a shutdown that was only intended to last for 10 days. However, now that days have stretched into months via a series of extensions to the governor’s executive orders, a growing number of local small businesses have been forced to close forever. Barring the possibility of another extension, Walz’s current shutdown orders are slated to last 77 days— that’s over 20% of 2020.

 

...