Post by Jaga on May 28, 2021 21:33:16 GMT -7
when our governor was out of office for a day, the Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who likes showing up with guns changed the rules and pronounced that masks are banned....
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/28/idaho-mask-mandate-ban/?itid=hp-top-table-main
Idaho lieutenant governor banned mask mandates while the governor was out of town. It didn’t last.
Idaho’s Republican governor, Brad Little, rescinded an executive order Friday canceling mask mandates that his second-in-command issued this week while he was away at a conference, calling it an “abuse of power.”
“I do not like petty politics. I do not like political stunts over the rule of law,” Little said in a statement. “However, the significant consequences of the Lt. Governor’s flimsy executive order require me to clean up a mess.”
It was the latest clash in a pandemic-long feud between Little and Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, also a Republican, over public-health measures designed to protect Idahoans from the coronavirus.
McGeachin, who recently announced that she is running for governor, has spent months criticizing Little’s response to the crisis as too heavy-handed. Last year, she appeared in a conservative think-tank’s video that suggested that the pandemic may not be real, and in March attended a protest at the Idaho Capitol in Boise where people were burning masks.
Idaho lieutenant gov. appears in video slamming virus rules, whether ‘a pandemic may or may not be occurring’
With Little attending a Republican Governors Association meeting in Nashville this week, McGeachin escalated the conflict. On Thursday, she signed the order barring mask mandates, saying it was intended “to protect the rights and liberties of individuals and businesses” in Idaho.
The text of the short-lived order falsely asserted that face-coverings are “ineffective mitigation measures,” despite widely available evidence that masks are a critical tool for containing infections.
Little said he had received no warning about the decision from McGeachin and promised to review it when he returned. By Friday morning, about 24 hours after McGeachin issued the order, Little repealed it.
In a statement, Little said the measure “unilaterally and unlawfully” stripped local officials from setting public-health policies in their jurisdictions. If it were left in place, he said, the state wouldn’t be able to require safety measures for social workers visiting homes of at-risk patients, or workers in state testing labs. He also noted that the order mirrored a bill that was debated in the legislature and ultimately failed.
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/28/idaho-mask-mandate-ban/?itid=hp-top-table-main
Idaho lieutenant governor banned mask mandates while the governor was out of town. It didn’t last.
Idaho’s Republican governor, Brad Little, rescinded an executive order Friday canceling mask mandates that his second-in-command issued this week while he was away at a conference, calling it an “abuse of power.”
“I do not like petty politics. I do not like political stunts over the rule of law,” Little said in a statement. “However, the significant consequences of the Lt. Governor’s flimsy executive order require me to clean up a mess.”
It was the latest clash in a pandemic-long feud between Little and Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, also a Republican, over public-health measures designed to protect Idahoans from the coronavirus.
McGeachin, who recently announced that she is running for governor, has spent months criticizing Little’s response to the crisis as too heavy-handed. Last year, she appeared in a conservative think-tank’s video that suggested that the pandemic may not be real, and in March attended a protest at the Idaho Capitol in Boise where people were burning masks.
Idaho lieutenant gov. appears in video slamming virus rules, whether ‘a pandemic may or may not be occurring’
With Little attending a Republican Governors Association meeting in Nashville this week, McGeachin escalated the conflict. On Thursday, she signed the order barring mask mandates, saying it was intended “to protect the rights and liberties of individuals and businesses” in Idaho.
The text of the short-lived order falsely asserted that face-coverings are “ineffective mitigation measures,” despite widely available evidence that masks are a critical tool for containing infections.
Little said he had received no warning about the decision from McGeachin and promised to review it when he returned. By Friday morning, about 24 hours after McGeachin issued the order, Little repealed it.
In a statement, Little said the measure “unilaterally and unlawfully” stripped local officials from setting public-health policies in their jurisdictions. If it were left in place, he said, the state wouldn’t be able to require safety measures for social workers visiting homes of at-risk patients, or workers in state testing labs. He also noted that the order mirrored a bill that was debated in the legislature and ultimately failed.
