California mayor on declaring sanctuary from shutdown orders
A city in California defies Governor Gavin Newsom and declares itself a 'sanctuary city' for businesses; Mayor of Atwater, California, Paul Creighton joins 'Fox and Friends.'
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A California mayor is declaring his city a sanctuary for businesses from the state's coronavirus shutdown orders.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends," Atwater Mayor Paul Creighton explained that in California there's a "sanctuary city for everything" including drug abuse and rampant homelessness.
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He said that they had smashed the COVID-19 curve in their city days ahead of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and that nurses in local hospitals are being "sent home" because hospitalization numbers are "extremely low."
Despite Creighton's community having done a "great job," he feared that his local hospital would close because of the lack of revenue.
"Atwater is one of the lowest numbers in our county and we're seeing the economic pressure of this -- and we're not getting any relief from the governor or the county so -- we decided to step up," he stated.
Creighton added that while he didn't want to jeopardize any businesses with state licenses, the police in the city of Atwater would stand down and support their residents.
That said, the state's Alcohol Beverage Control was not as supportive over the weekend. According to Creighton, they threatened local businesses in Atwater.
"The revenues are down. We're following the Constitution. And, we're not actively [or] aggressively going to file a lawsuit or anything else, but we're going to stand our ground," he declared. "And, the draconian measures that are taken, [they don't] fit our community."
"We smashed the curve here in Merced County and we're doing our part," Creighton concluded. "So, let us return back to business as normal with best practices, and businesses know how to do that."
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Although Newsom recently announced slightly loosened criteria for counties that hope to allow businesses to reopen more quickly than the state overall, 24 California counties have been allowed to reopen more businesses to date.
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