∙At a special City Council meeting held on Tuesday, September 8, the Council approved the extension of the popular ‘Main Street Moves’ program. This is a temporary outdoor business expansion program that allows businesses within the 6 block closure area of historic Downtown Ventura Main St (Fir St. to Figueroa Plaza) to expand onto the streets and sidewalks as a means to support local commerce during COVID-19. Main Street Moves is a collaborative effort between the City of Ventura and the Downtown Ventura Partners.
Happy to say that this program has really helped keep restaurants in business but not sure how it has affected non-restaurant businesses that are open. Plus there have been complaints about a lot more traffic on Poli.
Another good thing that the City is doing is to allow restaurants to expand outside by removing some of their required parking.
∙ It’s wonderful that Governor Newsom signed a bill that outlaws the retail sale of flavored tobacco products in California. The new law takes effect on January 1 and is a result of a surge in teen use of flavored tobacco. I know that some adults who smoke say that flavored tobacco has allowed them to stop smoking (ain’t they both smoking?), but my concern is to keep young people from starting to smoke,because once they do, in most cases, it lasts a lifetime.
∙According to data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Northern Hemisphere just sweltered through its hottest summer on record. Globally, August ranked as the second-hottest month since record keeping began in 1880.
Historic wildfires and extreme weather events in the U.S. have sharpened focus on global warming and the catastrophic impacts of climate change (we know of course that climate change is a hoax even if it was 121 degrees in Woodland Hills).
∙My condolences, and love goes out to the Baker family for the passing of their daughter Izzy as reported in our last issue. She was, as Yiddish calls her, part of the Breeze mishpucha.
∙SPAN Thrift Store is now open to the public and looking for donations of adult clothing, household items and tools, if you have any of these items you no longer use. See more on the pet page.
∙Bike Week ends on September 25th. The VC Transportation Commission is asking you to bike instead of driving one day per week. This is an annual event encouraging residents to use their bicycles instead of their cars. If you are working at home, you can ride your bike around the block and then come back home thereby not using your car to get to work. If you go to goventura.org/bike-week you can enter to win a $100 VISA gift card. The deadline is September 30th.
∙ Our nation has lost an amazing lady in Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was a brilliant justice and a trailblazer. She leaves an extraordinary legacy. Ginsburg was born and grew up in Brooklyn, New York and earned her bachelor’s degree at Cornell University. She was married to Martin D. Ginsburg and was a mother before starting law school at Harvard, where the 5-foot tall Ruth was one of the few women in her class. Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School, where she graduated first in her class. She was a professor at Rutgers Law School and Columbia Law School, teaching civil procedure as one of the few women in her field.
Just hours after Ginsburg died, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump’s pick to replace Ginsburg will get a vote on the Senate floor, prompting an angry response from Democrats.
This is just another example of the hypocrisy of our political system (on both sides).When Obama nominated U.S. Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland in 2016 to fill the seat of Justice Antonin Scalia, McConnell and the majority of his Republican Senate colleagues refused to grant a confirmation hearing 10 months before the presidential election saying the next president should make the appointment.
At the time, Ted Cruz was running to be the Republican presidential nominee and released a statement, saying, “I proudly stand with my Republican colleagues in our shared belief that we should not vote on any nominee until the next president is sworn into office.” Not all Republicans agree.
Now Cruz and many of his Republican colleagues have a different take.
∙If an alien just landed here, they would think that Biden was president and Trump was running against him. Trump ads (and words) show bad things going on right now and state, “If Biden was president this is what the country would look like, but if law and order Trump is elected this wouldn’t be happening.”
Also, Trump commenting on the shooting of two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies stated that Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden is weak on law and order issues. How is Biden at all responsible for what’s going on in this country? Wait, isn’t this happening on Trump’s watch? Occasionally, reporters need to remind him that he is president.
∙In a tweet, the president urged voters in North Carolina to vote twice, once by mail and once in person. Voting twice is illegal in all states. Even Trump’s tweet might be a violation of North Carolina election law, which specifies that “to induce another to commit a fraud to register or vote at more than one precinct or more than one time, in the same primary or election” is unlawful.
∙House Majority Whip James Clyburn on Thursday slammed Attorney General William Barr for comparing coronavirus lockdowns in the US to slavery, saying the comments are “the most ridiculous, tone-deaf, God-awful thing I’ve ever heard.”
∙Trump said recently at a White House press briefing; “I really do believe we’re rounding the corner” the same day that 1,000 more Americans died. And the deaths of 200,000 coming up.
∙ According to a federal health official, Trump-appointed communications officials at the US Department of Health and Human Services pushed to change language to weekly science reports released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so as not to undermine his political message.
∙An overwhelming majority of Americans have no confidence or trust in President Donald Trump to verify the safety of any coronavirus vaccine, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll shows.
Only 9 percent, of U.S. adults said they have a great deal of confidence in Trump’s ability, or intention, to confirm the effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine. Sixty-nine percent of Americans in the poll released Sunday said they don’t have any confidence in Trump’s endorsement of the vaccine.
This, coupled with people concerned about the safety of vaccines, especially one that is being fast-tracked might mean that a vaccine may never work if only a minority of people participate.
