Protests erupted around Italy on Friday as the country&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, one of the strictest in the world, took effect.
Italy&#8217;s so-called &#8220;Green Pass&#8221; mandate took effect on Friday, meaning that workers must show proof that they are either fully vaccinated, tested negative, or recovered from COVID-19 within the past six months.
A Green Pass was already required in Italy to get into many indoor venues such as restaurants, museums, theaters, and some trains.
Now, both employers and workers face fines if they fail to enforce or comply with the mandate. Employers who fail to enforce the requirement may be fined 400 to 1,000 euros, and an employee who does not produce a Green Pass at work may be fined 600 to 1,500 euros, and will also be considered absent from work without approval.
The Green Pass program does allow for medical exemptions for people who cannot get the vaccine due to a proven medical condition, but those without an exemption must get tested for COVID-19 every 48 hours in order to be able to go to work. Workers must pay for the tests, which cost more than $17, themselves unless their employer is providing free testing since the government has not made testing free to all.
Two large protests occurred at two of Italy&#8217;s major ports, Trieste and Genoa, with workers shouting “No green pass” and “Freedom.”
Those protests and others in Rome and Milan were <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/italys-tough-workplace-covid-19-pass-a-harbinger-of-bidens-vaccine-mandate-11634300912">reportedly</a> peaceful.
In Italy, 85% of people over the age of 12 have received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine. In the U.S., 77% of people 12 and older have received at least one vaccine shot.
Last weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s (D-CA) trip to the Vatican, during which she visited Pope Francis, was <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/10/12/1045181390/pelosi-italy-trip-disrupted-by-green-pass-covid-protests">disrupted</a> by protests against vaccine mandates.
Pelosi had to be extracted from St. Patrick&#8217;s Church, where she was attending Mass, after about 10,000 Italians protested outside the church over the country&#8217;s new mandate. That protest turned violent, and at least a dozen protesters were arrested.
Some Italian lawmakers expressed their disapproval of the vaccine mandate on Friday as well.
Davide Barillari, a councilor from Rome’s Lazio region who is unvaccinated, &#8220;occupied&#8221; his office the night before the Green Pass mandate took effect, bypassing the requirement to show a Green Pass the next day.
“Oct. 15, 2021: History books will remember this day as the day of shame,” Barillari said in a video he posted on Facebook from his office.
“I am waiting for the police to tell me I can no longer stay in my office and work,” he said.
Last month, President Biden announced plans that companies with 100 or more employees must require all workers to get vaccinated or mandate that they get tested once a week. The president also said all federal workers must receive a coronavirus vaccine or face disciplinary action.
“We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden said.
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Italy Erupts In Protests Over Vaccine Mandates

COVID-19 Vaccine

Italy

Vaccine Mandate

The panel President Joe Biden appointed to consider reforming the Supreme Court released a preliminary report Thursday addressing the &#8220;real risk&#8221; of expanding the court, a move pushed by some progressives.
In its preliminary report, the bipartisan Supreme Court commission agreed that Congress can legally expand the Supreme Court, known as court-packing, but the panel was at odds over whether an expansion is wise.
&#8220;The risks of Court expansion are considerable, including that it could undermine the very goal of some of its proponents of restoring the Court&#8217;s legitimacy,&#8221; the commission <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/pcscotus/public-meetings/october-15-2021-pcscotus-meeting/">said</a> in the draft “discussion materials” from the White House.
While some commissioners agree with some of the reasoning behind expanding the court beyond nine justices, other commissioners think an expansion “is likely to undermine, rather than enhance, the Supreme Court’s legitimacy and its role in the constitutional system,” the report said.
“We have not sought to determine whether any particular perspective on the confirmation process or on the Court’s composition today is ‘correct,’” the commission stated, adding that, “any lawmaker contemplating Supreme Court reform should be aware that the pursuit of immediate Court expansion would involve taking a position in a partisan contest in which opinion is deeply divided.”
The discussion document also weighed the potential benefits of expanding the court.
“Decisions by a more diverse judiciary might be more informed,” the commission wrote. “More generally, a Court that was drawn from a broader cross-section of society might be viewed as more acceptable to the public.”
Nevertheless, progressives were not pleased with the panel&#8217;s words of caution on court-packing.
&#8220;This report is an abomination. It assumes that today&#8217;s Supreme Court is basically apolitical while fretting that reforms with any real teeth would politicize it, and potentially break democracy. Republicans must be thrilled with this outcome. It&#8217;s a gift to the GOP,&#8221; tweeted Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern.
President Russ Feingold of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal group, said in a statement that the commission must &#8220;advance a specific list of Supreme Court reforms that can be acted upon in the near term&#8221; in order to provide a &#8220;meaningful contribution to restoring the legitimacy of our judiciary.&#8221;
&#8220;The discussion materials released today, unfortunately, fail to match the urgency of the situation and do not lay out a solution to the legitimacy crisis before us,&#8221; Feingold said.
Over the last few years, several high-profile Democrats have joined progressive activists in calling for adding justices to the bench.
In April, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) led Democrats in introducing a bill to expand the court to 13 justices. Reps. Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Mondaire Jones (D-NY) co-sponsored the bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not yet warmed to the idea, however.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know that that&#8217;s a good idea or bad idea. I think it&#8217;s an idea that should be considered,&#8221; she <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/548443-pelosi-says-she-wont-bring-bill-to-expand-supreme-court-to-the-floor">said</a> in April of expanding the court. &#8220;And I think the president&#8217;s taking the right approach to have a commission to study such a thing. It&#8217;s a big step.&#8221;
The discussion materials were released ahead of the commission&#8217;s public meeting on Friday, where they will be discussed.
The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sotomayor-to-law-students-i-cant-change-texas-abortion-ban-but-you-can">began</a> a new term this month and will hear its first in-person oral arguments since the court began hearing cases virtually when the COVID-19 pandemic began. The court is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/texas-abortion-ban-back-in-effect-after-suspension">set to hear</a> several cases on controversial issues, including a challenge to a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Other upcoming cases include a <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/163823/concealed-carry-racism-aclu-guns">case</a> challenging the constitutionality of a New York concealed-carry gun law and a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/how-carson-v-makin-could-unravel-freedom-religion/620386/">case</a> involving whether state dollars should go to private religious schools.
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Biden Court-Packing Panel Releases Preliminary Report, Addresses ‘Real Risks’ Of Adding SCOTUS Members

Supreme Court

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel this week recommended emergency use approval for booster doses of both Moderna&#8217;s and Johnson &amp; Johnson&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine.
On Thursday, the FDA&#8217;s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted unanimously to recommend that certain at-risk people receive a booster dose of Moderna&#8217;s coronavirus vaccine at least six months after their initial two doses of the Moderna vaccine.
The Moderna booster dose is only 50 micrograms, half the size of the two initial 100-microgram doses individuals are given when they first receive the vaccine.
The groups who could benefit from a Moderna booster shot are people age 65 and older and people ages 18 to 64 who are either at high risk of severe illness or whose exposure to COVID-19 in their jobs put them at risk for complications or severe illness, the committee said.
However, some of the committee&#8217;s 19 members appeared reluctant to vote for the Moderna booster shot, pointing out that the data on the potential benefits of a booster dose is &#8220;not perfect.&#8221;
&#8220;The data are not perfect but these are extraordinary times and we have to work with imperfect data,&#8221; said Dr. Eric Rubin, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who is also editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/14/health/fda-vaccine-advisers-moderna-thursday/index.html">reported</a>.
&#8220;We can&#8217;t afford to have health care workers, even if not sick, be positive and infected and have to stay home from work because in parts of the country there&#8217;s a shortage of health care workers and there&#8217;s burnout everywhere,&#8221; remarked Dr. Stanley Perlman, a University of California San Diego professor of pediatrics.
On Friday a day later, the same FDA advisory committee voted unanimously to recommend booster shots of Johnson &amp; Johnson’s one-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
The Johnson &amp; Johnson recommendation was broader than the panel&#8217;s decision on Moderna. The panel recommended booster shots for everyone 18 and older who received their initial Johnson &amp; Johnson shot at least two months ago.
Studies have <a href="https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210919/moderna-vaccine-more-effective-than-pfizer-and-j-and-j">found</a> that Johnson &amp; Johnson&#8217;s one-shot vaccine is less effective than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
The FDA must issue an official decision in order for either of the advisory committee&#8217;s recommendations to be adopted.
Last month, the FDA <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-authorizes-booster-dose-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-certain-populations">approved</a> a booster dose of Pfizer&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine for the same at-risk groups listed in the advisory committee&#8217;s recommendation for the Moderna booster shot.
“Today’s action demonstrates that science and the currently available data continue to guide the FDA’s decision-making for COVID-19 vaccines during this pandemic,&#8221; Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-authorizes-booster-dose-pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-certain-populations">said</a> of the Pfizer decision, adding that the Pfizer booster shot would be allowed for groups like health care workers, teachers, grocery workers, and those in homeless shelters or prisons.
In June, Moderna asked the FDA to approve its vaccine for 12 to 17-year-olds. However, the FDA has now decided to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-delays-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-for-adolescents-to-review-rare-myocarditis-side-effect-11634315159">delay approval</a> to review whether the vaccine increases the risk of myocarditis, a rare inflammatory heart condition, in younger people.
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FDA Panel Recommends Moderna And J&J Booster Shots

The Biden administration announced late Thursday that it is preparing to resume the Trump administration&#8217;s &#8220;Remain in Mexico&#8221; policy, which requires migrants at the southern border to stay in Mexico as they wait to have their asylum cases heard.
The Department of Homeland Security said it plans to reimplement the &#8220;Remain in Mexico&#8221; policy in November after the administration attempted to end the Trump-era policy earlier this year and was met with legal challenges.
A U.S. District Court in Texas in August ordered the Biden administration to resume the policy, called the Migrant Protection Protocols. During the Trump administration, more than 60,000 asylum seekers were sent back across the southern border to Mexico under the policy.
DHS said it is “taking necessary steps to comply with the court order, which requires us to reimplement MPP in good faith,” according to a Thursday statement from the department.
The administration said the return of the policy depends on whether Mexico agrees to accept migrants back over the border who have already crossed into the U.S., according to court filings.
“Mexico is a sovereign nation that must make an independent decision to accept the return of individuals without status in Mexico as part of any reimplementation of MPP. Discussions with the Government of Mexico concerning when and how MPP will be reimplemented are ongoing,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Thursday.
In March, Biden said he did not regret moving quickly to roll back some of Trump&#8217;s executive orders.
&#8220;Rolling back the policies of separating children from their mothers, I make no apology for that. Rolling back the policies of &#8216;Remain in Mexico,&#8217; sitting on the edge of the Rio Grande in a muddy circumstance with not enough to eat and — I make no apologies for that,&#8221; Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/03/25/remarks-by-president-biden-in-press-conference/">said</a>, adding that Trump&#8217;s immigration programs have &#8220;an incredibly negative impact on the law, international law, as well as on human dignity.&#8221;
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Migrants In Caravan That Travelled Through Mexico Attempt To Be Granted Asylum At U.S. Border

Biden Administration Preparing To Resume Trump’s Remain In Mexico Policy To Curb Border Crisis

Border Crisis

Joe Biden

Nurses facing being fired from their Illinois hospital are suing their employer for refusing to grant them exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, a move they claim violates state law.
Last month, Riverside Healthcare in Kankakee, Illinois, told all employees who filed for exemptions to the hospital&#8217;s vaccine mandate that their requests had been denied, saying that the health care system could not have unvaccinated employees caring for patients.
“Based on our review of your declination request and our COVID Vaccination Program Policy, your request has been denied. Although your religious or strongly held belief may otherwise qualify for an exemption, Riverside has decided to deny your request because you are in a patient-facing position,” the health care system&#8217;s letter stated, <a href="https://www.daily-journal.com/news/local/riverside-denies-religious-exemptions-for-covid-vaccinations/article_388feeb0-19a0-11ec-84ac-23aaa5bcad69.html">according</a> to the Daily Journal.
“We take all requests very seriously and respect the time you invested to submit it,” Riverside said, adding that employees who do not want the vaccine could apply for non-patient-facing positions.
On Wednesday, six nurses at Riverside who filed for exemptions and were told they would be fired for refusing the vaccine filed a lawsuit in Circuit Court for the Twenty-First Circuit in Kankakee County.
Riverside&#8217;s Kankakee hospital has 300 beds and more than 3,000 employees. Riverside&#8217;s most recent available vaccination rate was only 54% at the end of August, the Daily Journal said.
Attorneys for the nurses claim the health care system&#8217;s &#8220;blanket denial of conscience exemptions&#8221; to the vaccine mandate violates the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act.
“These nurses worked throughout the pandemic, putting their lives and their families’ lives on the line. They were celebrated as ‘essential workers’ and ‘heroes’ for their courage – and rightly so,&#8221; <a href="https://libertyjusticecenter.org/media/illinois-religious-exemption/">said</a> Daniel Suhr, managing attorney at the Liberty Justice Center, which is representing the nurses.
&#8220;And now, 20 months into the pandemic, Riverside Healthcare is showing them the door unless they violate their religious beliefs and their conscience,” Suhr added. “This is a ruthless overreach aimed at coercing front line workers to do something they sincerely believe is wrong. These nurses know the virus better than anyone and are making a deeply personal, individual choice that should be respected. Not only is that the right thing to do, but it’s Illinois law.&#8221;
This week, the administration of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker made it clear that it wants to prevent people from citing the Health Care Right of Conscience Act for religious-based vaccine exemptions.
&#8220;The Health Care Right of Conscience Act was never intended to allow people to avoid public health guidance during a global pandemic. The administration supports efforts to clarify the law, so it cannot be misinterpreted by fringe elements,&#8221; Emily Bittner, Pritzker&#8217;s deputy chief of staff, <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/illinois-covid-vaccine-mandate-health-care-right-of-conscience-act-jb-pritzker-fraternal-order-police/11113439/">said</a> in a statement.
One of the six nurses was already fired last month. Amy Memenga worked for Riverside for over 25 years before she was fired over the vaccine mandate.
Another nurse, Neelie Panozzo, has been serving patients for over 24 years but was told she will be fired at the end of the month along with four of the other Riverside nurses who filed the lawsuit.
“I have dedicated my life to living out my faith by serving my patients,” Panozzo said, <a href="https://libertyjusticecenter.org/media/illinois-religious-exemption/">according</a> to a press release from the Liberty Justice Center.
“I believe I am called to love and serve my patients, especially those who are frail and vulnerable. I am also following my faith’s teachings when I say I cannot accept this vaccine. I am ashamed that Riverside will not respect my sincere beliefs and instead insists on firing all of its employees who sought conscience protections,” she said.
Opposition to vaccine mandates for health care workers has raised legal questions in other states as well.
Earlier this week, a judge <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/12/nyregion/new-york-vaccine-mandate.html?smid=tw-nytimes&amp;smtyp=cur">ruled</a> that New York State health officials cannot force employers to deny health care workers religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate.
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Nurses Sue Hospital For ‘Blanket Denial’ Of Religious Vaccine Exemptions

Illinois

More than a year after &#8220;Tiger King&#8221; transfixed viewers who were holed up at home during the first COVID-19 lockdowns, Joe Exotic&#8217;s famous cat lady nemesis is getting her own docuseries.
Carole Baskin&#8217;s new Discovery+ docuseries, &#8220;Carole Baskin’s Cage Fight,&#8221; will follow Baskin as she investigates animal abuse of big cats at the Oklahoma zoo once run by her rival, Joe Exotic.
The docuseries will hit the streaming service on November 13.
Baskin, who runs Big Cat Rescue, shot to national notoriety last year thanks to Netflix&#8217;s &#8220;Tiger King,&#8221; which focused mostly on Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, but also documented his and Baskin&#8217;s long and complicated rivalry in detail.
Exotic was convicted in 2019 of a murder-for-hire plot to kill Baskin and is now serving a 22-year sentence in federal prison in Texas. He was also convicted on 17 federal charges of animal abuse.
A judge has since awarded the G.W. Zoo property to Baskin.
The series &#8220;reveals Carole’s story in her own words,” Amy Introcaso-Davis, executive VP development and production factual programming at Discovery, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/carole-baskin-to-investigate-treatment-of-big-cats-at-joe-exotics-former-zoo-in-discovery-docu-series-exclusive-1235031322/">told</a> The Hollywood Reporter. “Viewers will see this larger-than-life personality in the fight for her beloved big cats’ lives as she uncovers and stops the exploitation of these animals.”
&#8220;The story that gripped the world barely scratched the surface,&#8221; the trailer for Baskin&#8217;s new series says.
&#8220;Hey, all you cool cats and kittens, it&#8217;s Carole Baskin,&#8221; Baskin says in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX0yBTv72_Y&amp;ab_channel=DiscoveryPress">trailer</a>, using her signature greeting.
&#8220;We were told &#8216;Tiger King&#8217; was a documentary about the abuse of wild animals,&#8221; Baskin continues. &#8220;It turned out to be a reality TV show at best.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;ve been going after animal exploiters for decades,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Joe Exotic is one of them, and he&#8217;s in jail. I want to go on to bringing down the next bad guy.&#8221;
&#8220;We are going to catch you,&#8221; she promises. &#8220;If you&#8217;re abusing big cats, I&#8217;m coming for you.&#8221;
Baskin, who went on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” last year, will even get help in her investigation from Joe Exotic’s niece, who worked at G.W. Zoo for much of her childhood.
Her husband, Howard, will also be featured in the series. &#8220;Tiger King&#8221; toyed with speculation that Baskin played a role in the disappearance of her second husband, Don Lewis, a rumor she has denied, accusing the series of <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/tiger-king-star-carole-baskin-denies-killing-husband-don-lewis-slams-netflix-documentary">having</a> the &#8220;sole goal of being as salacious and sensational as possible to draw viewers.&#8221;
The 58-year-old Exotic is currently waiting to be re-sentenced, as his original sentence was ruled to have been harsh in July. Exotic had hoped to receive a presidential pardon from former President Donald Trump, but Trump left office without granting him one, a development that Baskin said left her relieved.
&#8220;I&#8217;m taking a deep breath because I feel such a sense of relief,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/tiger-king-carole-baskin-relieved-trump-failed-pardon-joe-exotic">said</a> in January. &#8220;From the very time that he was sentenced I have worried about there being a presidential pardon that could undo all of the hard work that went into bringing this person to justice. When today at noon a new president was sworn in, I felt like I was finally safe from that threat.&#8221;
Baskin&#8217;s docuseries is produced by ITV America’s Thinkfactory Media.
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Carole Baskin Getting Her Own Docuseries To Investigate Joe Exotic Zoo

Tiger King

United Airlines may not place unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave if they have requested a medical or religious exemption to the company&#8217;s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.
In August, the airline announced that its 67,000 U.S. employees must receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Employees who requested a medical or religious exemption from the vaccine would be placed on unpaid leave, United said.
Most United employees were already vaccinated in August — 90% of pilots and 80% of flight attendants — but about 2,000 employees requested medical or religious exemption from the company.
Six employees who had requested such exemptions, including two pilots, sued the airline, <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/united-airlines-employee-sue-sued-over-covid-vaccine-mandate-coronavirus/11054722/">arguing</a> that United has engaged in a &#8220;pattern of discrimination against employees who requested religious or medical accommodations.&#8221; The employees said that the unpaid leave policy means they would be &#8220;effectively terminated.&#8221;
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth, Texas, granted a temporary restraining order on Tuesday to the employees who sued, blocking United from halting the paychecks of any employee requesting medical or religious vaccine exemptions.
United had already agreed not to place the unvaccinated employees on unpaid leave, but that agreement was due to run out before the case could be decided, the judge said.
&#8220;The court is not currently ruling on the merits of the parties&#8217; arguments on these points,&#8221; the judge wrote in his order. &#8220;Rather the court seeks simply to avoid the risk of irreparable harm to the parties and to maintain the status quo while the court holds an evidentiary hearing.&#8221;
The judge also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-judge-restrains-united-placing-employees-receiving-covid-19-vaccine-exemption-2021-10-13/">restrained</a> the airline from denying late requests for religious or medical accommodations, according to Reuters.
United issued a statement defending its vaccine mandate and assuring that it is weighing how to provide workers with options.
&#8220;Vaccine requirements work and nearly all of United&#8217;s U.S. employees have chosen to get a shot. For a number of our employees who were approved for an accommodation, we&#8217;re working to put options in place that reduce the risk to their health and safety, including new testing regimens, temporary job reassignments and masking protocols,&#8221; United <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/12/business/united-vaccine-mandate-on-hold/index.html">said</a>.
The temporary restraining order will expire on October 26.
The attorney for the plaintiffs praised the judge&#8217;s ruling and expressed confidence in a more permanent decision favoring his clients later.
&#8220;United Airlines&#8217; refusal to provide reasonable accommodations to its vaccine mandate violates the federal civil rights protections of our clients, the hard working men and women at United,&#8221; attorney Mark Paoletta <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/12/business/united-vaccine-mandate-on-hold/index.html">said</a>. &#8220;We look forward to our clients&#8217; rights be permanently protected.&#8221;
Earlier this week, United CEO Scott Kirby said that hundreds of United employees will be fired for refusing to get the vaccine.
“I wish we would have gotten to 100 percent but out of our 67,000 US employees, there are 232 who haven’t been vaccinated and they are going through the termination process now,” Kirby <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSMornings/status/1448262811134607360?s=20">said</a> on Wednesday.
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United Can’t Put Workers With COVID Vaccine Exemption On Unpaid Leave, Judge Says

United Airlines

As Catholic parents in Dallas put their kids to bed on August 9, they received a surprise email from the Dallas diocese informing them that face masks would be required for all students at diocesan schools the next day on the first day of school.
The letter cited the &#8220;clear and present danger for unvaccinated children&#8221; from the delta COVID variant as well as rising virus cases in Texas. The Diocese of Dallas Catholic Schools has about 15,000 students at 31 schools.
Several blindsided parents immediately complained. One father of four told The Daily Wire he was so &#8220;beside myself&#8221; he drove to his children&#8217;s diocesan school that same night hoping to find someone to speak to about the mandate even though it was the end of the day. Eventually he found the school pastor, who, he said, appeared &#8220;at least as frustrated&#8221; as he was.
Parents called and emailed the offices of Dallas Bishop Edward Burns and Superintendent Matthew Vereecke repeatedly before one dad finally got a response.
&#8220;It’s clear that we are not going to come to agreement on this,&#8221; Vereecke wrote in an August 12 email to Greg Morris, who has three children in diocese schools. &#8220;We understand that you disagree with the situation and the logic, and it doesn’t appear that further communication will be productive.&#8221;
At that point, Morris and two other fathers, Nicholas Kerr, who has two children in diocese schools, and another dad who requested anonymity organized a group of hundreds of like-minded parents to try to at least extract an explanation from the diocese regarding the mask mandate. Morris started a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/catholic-diocese-of-dallas-stop-mask-mandates-at-catholic-diocese-of-dallas-schools?recruiter=739559554&amp;recruited_by_id=e16ebcc0-5a94-11e7-ab8b-ada69b632cbb&amp;utm_source=share_petition&amp;utm_medium=copylink&amp;utm_campaign=petition_dashboard">petition</a> against the mandate that garnered nearly 1,500 signatures. The three dads even researched COVID numbers and crafted their own mask policy proposal and submitted it to the diocese. The proposal suggested that individual diocese schools be allowed to choose whether to make masks optional when the Dallas area has had seven consecutive days in which the number of COVID- 19 hospitalized patients falls below 15 percent of total hospital capacity.
&#8220;I said, I don&#8217;t even care what your policy is, to be honest. I just want to know what the policy is,&#8221; Morris told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Of course it fell on deaf ears.&#8221;
Meanwhile, a group of parents held several protests against the mask mandate. It was at one of these protests that a demonstrator held a sign calling on the bishop to stop the &#8220;child abuse&#8221; and raised the hackles of the diocese.
At that point, the diocese switched gears and began threatening to expel their children, the dads said, despite them having no connection to the sign. All three fathers were called in to meet with leadership at their children&#8217;s respective schools and warned that the diocese was considering expelling their kids if they did not back down on their opposition to the mask mandate, they said.
&#8220;Needless to say, this took us somewhat by surprise and left us shaken once we processed everything that evening,&#8221; Kerr said in a statement he says he read to <a href="https://stmonicaschool.org/">St Monica&#8217;s</a> leadership, adding that he feels his children are being &#8220;used as pawns&#8221; against him. &#8220;It feels very much like a Soviet-style purge is being initiated against our group.&#8221;
&#8220;I must admit, I am very disappointed to know that my 12-year-old is now being threatened to be kicked out of school when his parents haven’t done anything wrong and neither has he,&#8221; Morris wrote in a September 27 email to <a href="https://www.popschool.net/">Prince of Peace</a> leadership after the meeting. &#8220;It feels like we are being bullied because we are the face of opposition. I wouldn’t be disappointed if this was coming from a big company but when you are being intimidated by the Church, it really questions your faith and everything you believe in.  I am saddened because you all know who we are and our reputation.&#8221;
&#8220;We will continue to advocate for our children,&#8221; Morris wrote. &#8220;If for some reason, you decide you want to kick us out, please share the section in the handbook that we have violated.&#8221;
The dads had taken pains to distance their group from certain parents they felt were too incendiary and to condemn those parents’ behavior. Meanwhile, parents on the other side of the mask debate were not always so courteous.
&#8220;I am so happy none of you are making decisions about my child’s school,” one apparently pro-mandate dad trolled a private Facebook group of parents against the mandate. His access to the group was later revoked.
The first comment in response was, “Welcome! No one is trying to make any decisions for other children. We do, however, want to be able to make a decision for our own children, as any parent should.&#8221;
Asked whether parents who opposed the mask mandate were threatened with expulsion, the diocese responded that some parents took actions that were &#8220;disruptive.&#8221;
&#8220;In a few instances, parents have gone beyond expressing their concerns to actions that are disruptive to the administration of our schools. This violates the agreement parents sign when they enroll their students in diocesan private schools,&#8221; the diocese said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
&#8220;The Diocese respects the rights of parents to disagree with our policies but expects parents and students to abide by those policies. To that end, at the beginning of the school year, when schools knew a mask policy would be in place, they offered a refund at that time to all families who felt they were not willing or able to support the policy,&#8221; the diocese said.
The diocese said it has responded to concerns and has provided parents with &#8220;detailed information&#8221; about the &#8220;background that led to the implementation&#8221; of the mask mandate. The mandate is based on the advice of health experts and is &#8220;consistent with what many other schools on a local and national level are doing,&#8221; the diocese said, adding that due to &#8220;continuing changing circumstances&#8221; it cannot provide a timeframe for a change to the mask policy.
&#8220;The Bishop also asked the pastors and principals to meet with parents at the local school level, which they have done on numerous occasions,&#8221; the diocese said.
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One of the fathers criticized the diocese&#8217;s statement as &#8220;what you would expect, full of holes and inconsistencies.&#8221;
Morris and Kerr said this was the first they had heard about a refund.
&#8220;They have never cited any area of the school handbook which parents violated,&#8221; Morris noted.
Kerr emphasized that St. Monica&#8217;s told him expressly that it was the diocese, not the school, that had a problem with him and said no such &#8220;disruptive actions&#8221; charge was ever leveled at him.
A huge point of outrage for some parents is that the diocese does not allow even medical mask exemptions for children with breathing issues.
One dad&#8217;s son has been struggling with a hyperventilation issue that his parents felt would worsen if he were forced to wear a mask. Kerr said his seven-year-old son now comes home with headaches regularly, something that did not happen in the summer. The dad who drove to school the night the mandate was announced has a three-year-old son who has been in speech therapy every week all year. The child was struggling to learn from a teacher who was wearing a mask, and having him wear a mask too would only exacerbate his speech issues, his parents felt. That dad has pulled his children from diocese schools.
&#8220;They keep shifting the goalposts, changing the metric that they&#8217;re following. They don&#8217;t talk about hospitalizations anymore. They just talk about cases,&#8221; the dad said. &#8220;I think the direction this is going is that they&#8217;re going to be pushing for vaccine mandates.&#8221;
Last week, the diocese announced that it was relaxing masking rules for high school students at schools that have a 60% or higher vaccination rate. Cases at grade schools remain too high to relax masking, the diocese said, noting that elementary school children are still not eligible for the vaccine.
Meanwhile, masks are not required during Mass at churches in the diocese, and one school recently hosted a spaghetti dinner where hundreds of people did not wear masks or social distance in the same building where students are required to be masked at school during the day, one dad recalled.
The bishop himself was photographed giving a speech unmasked near unmasked children at a high school football game at Ford Center at The Star, an indoor stadium in Frisco.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve been disappointed. I feel like there&#8217;s only a few of us who are really willing to kind of express what an injustice this is,&#8221; the same dad said.
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school masks

Catholic Diocese Threatened To Expel Kids Whose Parents Opposed Mask Mandate, Families Say

Catholic Church

Dallas

Face Masks

As droves of office workers leave San Francisco, the city&#8217;s downtown is struggling to bounce back from the pandemic&#8217;s toll on its formerly bustling atmosphere.
Local news reports <a href="https://abc7news.com/san-francisco-housing-market-coronavirus-california-real-estate-affordable/6341378/">describe</a> walking through San Francisco&#8217;s Financial District and South of Market neighborhood as like visiting a &#8220;ghost town.&#8221;
The South of Market neighborhood is home to the headquarters of a slew of prominent tech companies including Uber, Dropbox, Airbnb, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Yelp, and Salesforce.
As much as 90% of the city&#8217;s workforce is now working from home, ABC7 News <a href="https://abc7news.com/san-francisco-housing-market-coronavirus-california-real-estate-affordable/6341378/">reported</a>. Before the pandemic, San Francisco had the highest building occupancy rate in the U.S., but most of its skyscrapers have now emptied out, the outlet reported.
About 27% of office space in San Francisco is now available, <a href="http://cbre.vo.llnwd.net/grgservices/secure/San%20Francisco%20Office%20Marketview%20Q2%202021.pdf?e=1633884837&amp;h=1e8a94940209c1e6df5353215908db0d">according</a> to a report by CBRE, a commercial real estate firm, compared to 19% of available office space <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/nyregion/manhattan-vacant-office-space-real-estate.html">in Manhattan</a>. Meanwhile, San Francisco apartment rents, while starting to rise again, dropped more steeply than anywhere else in the country over the pandemic, while the cost of living remains high at 44% more than New York City, The Economist <a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2021/08/28/why-san-franciscos-city-government-is-so-dysfunctional">reported</a>.
Several tech giants have announced they are moving their headquarters out of California permanently, fleeing the high taxes, expensive real estate, and stringent government regulation of Silicon Valley.
On Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-says-tesla-moving-headquarters-from-california-to-texas">announced</a> that the electric car company will move its headquarters out of Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area to Austin, Texas.
Oracle and Hewlett Packard have also said they are ditching the San Francisco area and re-establishing their headquarters in Texas.
Several CEOs have moved their personal residences to Austin as well, including Musk himself, Splunk CEO Douglas Merritt, and Dropbox CEO Drew Houston.
As workers, especially tech workers, migrate out of San Francisco, the city&#8217;s downtown restaurants and other vendors are left wondering whether business will ever go back to normal.
“COVID has been the hardest one. You know, we went through the dotcom [crash], we went through the crash of Lehman Brothers, but they never shut us down for so long,” Pino Spinoso of Cafe Tiramisu, an Italian restaurant in the Financial District, <a href="https://heresaymedia.com/san-francisco-financial-district-merchants-long-recovery-ahead/">told</a> Here/Say. “And the people kind of lost the trust of the people next to them. You know, we’ve never had that before.”
Meanwhile, bars and restaurants are still subject indefinitely to an indoor mask mandate in San Francisco. While the city&#8217;s current mask mandate will be lifted for other businesses like gyms, churches, and offices, on October 15, the order does not apply to bars and restaurants.
Despite what the changes downtown might appear to suggest, San Francisco did not suffer a virus death toll at the level of hard-hit cities like New York and in fact had the lowest COVID-19 death rate of any major U.S. city. 
&#8220;San Francisco’s response to COVID-19 has been hailed as a national model,&#8221; Mayor London Breed <a href="https://sfmayor.org/mayor-london-n-breeds-2021-state-city-address">boasted</a> in January during her State of the City address.
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empty office

Downtown San Francisco Empty As Office Workers Move Out

COVID-19

San Francisco

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) met with Pope Francis on Saturday morning at the Vatican just as the abortion debate begins to pick up steam again in the U.S.
The speaker was joined at the Apostolic Palace by her husband Paul Pelosi, as well as Patrick Connell, the Charges d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican. Pictures and video from the papal audience showed Pelosi and the pope shaking hands and smiling.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
It was a spiritual, personal and official honor to have an audience with His Holiness Pope Francis this morning. <a href="https://t.co/nrWYyApnMQ">pic.twitter.com/nrWYyApnMQ</a>
&mdash; Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1446874937332011011?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Pope Francis welcomes Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi in the Vatican <a href="https://t.co/mBlxm8EVe3">pic.twitter.com/mBlxm8EVe3</a>
&mdash; The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1446911741615562755?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Pelosi, a lifelong Roman Catholic, has described herself as a &#8220;devout Catholic,&#8221; but she has been criticized recently by her own bishop in San Francisco for her public support of legal abortion. The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is morally wrong and kills the unborn child, whose life begins at conception.
“We must never lose sight of this fact: In the last 50 years, in the United States alone, 66,000,000 babies have been murdered in their mothers’ wombs,” San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2021/05/19/archbishop-cordileone-nancy-pelosi-communion-abortion-240700">said</a> in May.
“This is not a matter about which one can use judgment. It is a fact,&#8221; the bishop added.
“If we look around us and see what is happening in our society today, we will see that this fact once again demonstrates that violence begets violence,&#8221; Cordileone said. &#8220;The response to a woman in a crisis pregnancy is not violence, but love.”
In recent weeks, Pelosi has condemned Texas’ law, which is effectively a six-week abortion ban. A federal appeals court ruled on Friday can go back into effect after a federal judge briefly suspended it this week. The suspension came after the Biden administration’s Justice Department sued to halt enforcement of the “heartbeat law” last month.
“Every woman, everywhere has the constitutional right to basic health care,” Pelosi said in September, calling the Texas law &#8220;the most extreme, dangerous abortion ban in half a century, and its purpose is to destroy Roe v. Wade, and even refuses to make exceptions for cases of rape and incest.&#8221;
&#8220;This ban necessitates codifying Roe v. Wade,” Pelosi said.
The country&#8217;s top politician, President Joe Biden, has been criticized for taking a similar approach to abortion. Biden, the second Catholic American president, also publicly supports legal abortion.
Biden is <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249119/president-biden-expected-to-meet-pope-francis-at-the-end-of-october-sources-say">expected</a> to meet with the pope at the end of October in the president’s first official visit to the Vatican since taking office. The visit will come as Biden meets in Rome with world leaders for the G20 summit.
Pelosi&#8217;s visit was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pope-meets-pelosi-abortion-debate-rages-back-home-2021-10-09/">reportedly</a> in part for a parliamentary speakers&#8217; summit ahead of the G20.
The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sotomayor-to-law-students-i-cant-change-texas-abortion-ban-but-you-can">began</a> a new term this month and will hear its first in-person oral arguments since the court began hearing cases virtually when the COVID-19 pandemic began. The court is set to hear several cases on controversial issues, including a challenge to a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In that case, Mississippi is arguing against Roe vs. Wade’s ban on states outlawing abortion before the fetus is viable outside the womb, usually considered around 22 weeks of pregnancy.
This article has been revised for clarity. 
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pelosi

Pelosi Meets With Pope As Abortion Debate Heats Up in U.S.

Abortion

Nancy Pelosi

Pope Francis

Texas&#8217; six-week abortion ban is back in effect after a federal judge briefly suspended it this week.
On Friday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted Texas&#8217; request to lift an injunction against enforcement of the near-total abortion ban.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman had issued the injunction blocking the law on Wednesday at the request of the Biden administration&#8217;s Justice Department, which sued to halt enforcement of the abortion ban last month.
“From the moment S.B. 8 went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their own lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,” Pitman wrote in his <a class="css-1g7m0tk" title="" href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/texas-abortion-law-court-order/17fc8b7cdf7b3d1a/full.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">113-page ruling</a> blocking the law.
&#8220;This Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right,&#8221; the judge wrote.
At the end of August, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 to allow the Texas law to go into effect on September 1.
The law bans almost all abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, at around six weeks of pregnancy. It does not make exceptions for abortions in cases of rape and incest, and the only time the law does permit abortions is when the life of the mother is at stake or the pregnancy could cause “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”
In addition, the Texas law allows private citizens to launch civil lawsuits against anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. At least one such lawsuit has already been <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/2021/09/30/meet-the-first-man-to-file-a-lawsuit-under-texas--near-total-abortion-ban">filed</a>.
Pro-life advocates celebrated the reinstatement of the abortion ban.
&#8220;Every day this law is in effect, unborn children with beating hearts are saved and mothers are protected,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List.
“That it was even temporarily blocked shows the chilling effect of the Supreme Court’s unworkable precedents on the will of the people,” she added.
Abortion advocates meanwhile slammed the appeals court&#8217;s Friday decision.
&#8220;Patients are being thrown back into a state of chaos and fear, and this cruel law is falling hardest on those who already face discriminatory obstacles in health care, especially Black Indigenous, and other people of color, undocumented immigrants, young people, those struggling to make ends meet, and those in rural areas,&#8221; said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sotomayor-to-law-students-i-cant-change-texas-abortion-ban-but-you-can">began</a> a new term this month and will hear its first in-person oral arguments since the court began hearing cases virtually when the COVID-19 pandemic began. The court is set to hear several cases on controversial issues, including a challenge to a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In that case, Mississippi is arguing against Roe vs. Wade’s ban on states outlawing abortion before the fetus is viable outside the womb, usually considered around 22 weeks of pregnancy.
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abortion

Texas Abortion Ban Back In Effect After Suspension

Texas

Matthew McConaughey discussed the possibility of running for Texas governor on Thursday while at the same time calling politics a &#8220;bag of rats&#8221; in which he appears hesitant to involve himself.
The actor and self-described “statesman-philosopher, folk-singing poet” shared his thoughts on a potential gubernatorial bid and other issues including the Texas abortion ban during an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/opinion/sway-kara-swisher-matthew-mcconaughey.html?showTranscript=1">interview</a> on Thursday&#8217;s episode of The New York Times Opinion’s “Sway” podcast.
&#8220;Texas Governor — you said, I’m measuring it. I’m sorry, what’s &#8216;measuring&#8217; mean? What are you measuring?&#8221; podcast host Kara Swisher asked the iconic movie star.
&#8220;Measuring — &#8216;measuring&#8217; is a great word, isn’t it?&#8221; McConaughey responded.
&#8220;Yes, but it doesn’t mean anything,&#8221; Swisher pressed.
&#8220;I like to measure things before I partake. And you’ve got to partake before you’ve partook,&#8221; McConaughey said, prompting a laugh from his interviewer.
The actor explained that he is mulling the question of, &#8220;where can I be most useful?&#8221; and considering whether politics is already &#8220;a fixed game,&#8221; calling it a &#8220;bag of rats.&#8221;
&#8220;You go in there, you just put on a bunch of Band-Aids in four years, and walk out, and they rip ‘em off when you’re gone. I’m not interested in that,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;It’s a broken business,&#8221; McConaughey added. &#8220;And it’s getting dangerous now, you know, when both parties on their own would claim themselves to be democracy itself.&#8221;
McConaughey did not give a definite answer on whether he would launch a bid for governor, but he appeared to lower expectations by musing, &#8220;I could arguably have more influence as an informal leader than a formal leader.&#8221;
The actor also argued that he believes &#8220;people want a third party.&#8221;
&#8220;Third party, centrist — I think it’s necessary to be aggressively centric to possibly salvage democracy in America right now,&#8221; McConaughey said.
Despite his hesitancy to engage in partisanship, McConaughey had kind words for a Democrat politician and less positive remarks for Texas&#8217; new abortion law.
He praised Beto O&#8217;Rourke, calling him a &#8220;good man.&#8221;
&#8220;Maybe he believes in what he’s selling, and his heart is in the right place, and he’s got the right kind of compassion that a liberal-sided politician needs, and is necessary,&#8221; McConaughey said.
The Academy Award winner also criticized Texas&#8217; six-week abortion ban, although he declined to reveal exactly where he stands on the issue of abortion.
&#8220;I’m not going to come out and tell you right now on this show, here’s where I stand on abortion,&#8221; McConaughey said when Swisher asked him about the Texas abortion law.
&#8220;We’ve been trying to figure out that, and how to play God with that situation, since the beginning,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;But this latest move by Texas? It’s a little bit of — feels like a back to front sort of Roe v. Wade loophole that they’re trying to get into.&#8221;
McConaughey said the law &#8220;feels a little juvenile in its implementation&#8221; and said he has a &#8220;problem&#8221; with how it deals with rape and incest. He added that &#8220;if you’re saying that your discussion of abortion is even on the table to consider, six weeks does not really make that a honest consideration.&#8221;
The abortion ban went into effect in Texas in September but was suspended by a federal judge this week.
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Mairead Elordi