Actually, it's in the hands of the Trump admin Pentagon has not yet shipped 2,000 ventilators because HHS has not yet provided a shipping location https://thehill.com/policy/defense/...-ventilators-due-to-lack-of-shipment-location Defense Secretary Mark Esper had announced two weeks ago that the Pentagon would give the deployable ventilators and 5 million respirator masks to HHS in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Though the Defense Department had planned to deliver an initial 1,000 ventilators, HHS asked the department to wait, Lt. Gen. Giovanni Tuck, the Pentagon's top logistics official, told a small group of reporters. “There was discussion with HHS on where to send them, and then they said, ‘Hey. Wait. We're trying to take a look at the demand that's required,’ and so we were asked to just wait while there was just some sorting through,” Tuck said
Hobby Lobby is reopening stores in WI and OH defying those states shutdown orders. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...opens-some-stores/ar-BB11YkXE?ocid=spartandhp Hobby Lobby defies shutdown orders, reopens some stores As Hobby Lobby continues its mission to keep doors open in the face of the coronavirus, the arts-and-crafts retailer is quietly reopening stores around the country, defying states' stay-at-home policies. On Monday, the company resumed business in several states where it had been forced to temporarily close. A March 28 memo obtained by Business Insider equipped managers with talking points for "how to respond and communicate if visited by a local authority that asks why we are open." In a separate leaked note sent early last week, executives wrote that the company "is going to make every effort to continue working the employees." The reopenings include stores in Ohio and Wisconsin - which both enacted strict shelter-in-place orders on March 24 - where nearly all Hobby Lobby locations have been reopened after shuttering for only one week. During calls made to each location by Business Insider, employees confirmed that all 19 Hobby Lobby locations in Ohio were open as of Monday afternoon, as were 17 out of 20 stores in Wisconsin that were still listed as "temporarily closed" on Google. Of the three stores closed in Wisconsin, at least one was forcibly shuttered by police officers after briefly opening on Monday, according to local reports. An employee at this store told Business Insider on Monday that the store was closed but employees were there "working on projects." A similar incident was reported in Jeffersonville, Indiana, where local authorities forced a store to close after it was open for one hour on Monday morning. Hobby Lobby did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. 'I want to stay home to stop the spread of the virus." Despite mandates in at least 32 states calling for the closure of nonessential businesses, Hobby Lobby appears to be doing everything in its power to avoid shutting its doors. Employees question Hobby Lobby's 'essential' proclamations Elsewhere, in states including Colorado and North Carolina - which recently enacted stay-at-home protocols in the last few days - Hobby Lobby is avoiding shutting down altogether, insisting it is "essential" because it sells educational materials and products for home-based businesses. However, employees told Business Insider they are frustrated by these justifications, given that Hobby Lobby does not sell universally accepted essential items like food, toiletries, medicine, and cleaning products. While big-box stores like Walmart and Target provide services widely considered essential, craft stores are not on the list, nor are they included in guidance issued by the Department of Homeland Security. "They are not exempt," Conor Cahill, press secretary for Colorado Governor Jared Polis, told the Denver Post regarding Hobby Lobby on Monday. Adding to their frustration, two employees said the company's warehouse in Oklahoma City has been closed until further notice, meaning stores aren't even able to restock inventory that managers and executives are claiming are essential in the first place. "Hobby Lobby is fighting that we are an essential store," a Hobby Lobby employee in North Carolina said. "There is absolutely nothing in Hobby Lobby worth spreading this illness. I'm honestly appalled at this company and the way it doesn't care for its employees and only about making their money." The employees said they are worried about both their personal safety and a lack of resources needed to maintain a clean and sanitized workspace. The North Carolina employee said her team is not allowed to wear gloves or masks while working because management told them "it would make customers uncomfortable." Others are concerned their stores aren't equipped with adequate cleaning supplies or the manpower needed to clean effectively. Hobby Lobby executives began slashing jobs and cutting salaries last week in order to cut costs in states with stores required to close because of state regulations. "Management is being so secretive and won't be open with what's going on," another Ohio employee wrote in an email to Business Insider. "We also don't have the employees to do the extensive cleaning that they say we are doing on the website because payroll keeps telling management to cut hours. I'm just very anxious about this whole thing and don't understand why no one is helping us employees out with this situation." Four Hobby Lobby employees in North Carolina, Ohio, and another state in the Midwest - who spoke with Business Insider on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution but whose employment statuses and identities have been confirmed - said they continue to receive contradictory instructions regarding store operations. "The main thing is they're not really telling us anything," one employee in Ohio said. "Last Monday we closed because we were a nonessential business basically, and that was fine with me. Not even four days later, we're reopened because they're saying we're essential now." The employee, who is also a military veteran with post traumatic stress disorder, said his attempts to contact the Ohio Department of Health and the office of Governor Mike DeWine have gone unanswered. "My wife is pretty furious. We're trying to take care of my mother who had knee surgery and also has multiple sclerosis, which is an autoimmune disease. I don't want to bring it home and get her infected," he said. "I used to love working for this company, but since this pandemic I've seen how callous and irresponsible it has been." "This has all been so stressful and exhausting," said an employee in a nearby Midwestern state, where stores have yet to close despite mandates from lawmakers. "I don't want to stay home because I'm too lazy to work. I want to stay home to do my part to stop the spread of the virus."
I don't see how Hobby Lobby can satisfy their critics. Stay open and keep people employed and they're a public menace. Shutter and lay people off and they don't care about their employees. The idea that they are going to close their doors and nevertheless continue to give paychecks to 32,000 people is some magical thinking. That the founder is christian is irrelevant. It's apparent to me that they aren't really essential, so they should shutter and lay off their employees. But it doesn't surprise me that they'd try to remain in operation wherever the local rules will allow them to operate, and to seek exceptions as an essential business wherever they can convince a bureaucrat to issue one. That's why it's incumbent on governors to take the responsibility to issue stay at home orders and not leave it as advice. Public safety is their job, not the job of for-profit business owners.
This was interesting. This isn’t the first time that Hobby Lobby has been embroiled in an antiquities scandal. In 2018, the arts and crafts chain returned 4,000 artifacts—among them cuneiform tablets—to Iraq after the United States Department of Justice filed a complaint alleging the objects had been smuggled into the country. Last year, Hobby Lobby said it would turn over 13 fragments of ancient texts following an investigation that found an Oxford University professor had stolen the artifacts and sold them to the chain. The texts were held at the Museum of the Bible, which collaborated on the investigation with the Egypt Exploration Society, a nonprofit organization based in London.
They follow their version of Christianity taught to them by the right wing politico/businessman preachers. There is one principle Commandment "Thou Shall not commit abortion " Their are Ten Others to follow if it helps keep politicos or judges who follow the One Principle Commandment and keep taxes low for their poltico/business religious leaders.
It's two children of different faith praying to their deity for help winning a spelling bee. The two separate deities are fighting each other on behalf of the children's prayers. It reminds me when I used to play sports in middle school and high school and our coach would pray for our victory before the match. Except, our opponent's coach likely prayed a similar prayer for their team's success...to the same deity. The joke is praying for personal gain, as though God cares enough about your personal quips in life, to intervene on your behalf and make your circumstances better.
It makes sense for the state order to nullify county orders to eliminate confusion of what the rules are where. New Jersey did the same thing, and probably other states too. If the state order didn't order churches to close, that's probably a bad idea. But getting rid of the patchwork is probably a good idea.
Those people also spread it to others who do not attend the gathering (whether it's church or beach party).
https://www.businessinsider.com/hob...lough-nearly-all-employees-without-pay-2020-4 Hobby Lobby is closing all stores and furloughing 'nearly all' employees after it defied stay-at-home orders by quietly reopening locations around the nation After quietly reopening stores across the country in defiance of coronavirus-related state lockdown orders, Hobby Lobby is closing all stores nationally and furloughing employees. In a statement posted on the company website on Friday afternoon, Hobby Lobby announced it would furlough "nearly all store employees" and would be "ending emergency leave pay and suspending use of company provided paid time off benefits and vacation." "As the country continues efforts to manage and mitigate the devastating health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 virus, Hobby Lobby will, after careful consideration, close the remainder of its stores, and furlough nearly all store employees and a large portion of corporate and distribution employees, effective Friday, April 3rd, at 8:00 p.m," Hobby Lobby posted on its website. "The stores will remain closed until further notice." According to three employees, each speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, managers at their stores called teams into a meeting to deliver the news on Friday afternoon. During the meetings, they were told the furlough would impact all workers below management level and would be expected to run through at least May 1. An employee in Indiana told Business Insider his manager said she will continue to work, though she "has no idea why she will still be there" if stores are closed. "The line our manager gave us was, 'The employees got what the employees wanted, the stores were closed,'" the Indiana employee said in an interview shortly after he learned of the furlough. "My question was, did God tell them they needed to close the stores and not pay us?" 'Make every effort to continue working the employees' The announcement comes following controversy for Hobby Lobby, after the craft store chain refused to close its stores and join the nearly 100 major retailers that have temporarily shuttered to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. While each state has autonomy in defining parameters around what is considered an essential business, craft stores are not included in the list of universally accepted essential businesses, nor do they appear in a guidance on the subject provided by the Department of Homeland Security. In its announcement on Friday, Hobby Lobby maintained that it was essential, and claimed that it had "implemented several best practices to provide a safer shopping environment" for shoppers and consumers. These methods included "the installation of physical barriers between customers and cashiers, enhanced cleaning, and the enforcement of social distancing measures" — tactics which employees told Business Insider this week were either not enforced or were not sufficient in making them feel safe. "We know our customers relied on us to provide essential products, including materials to make personal protective equipment, such as face masks, educational supplies for the countless parents who are now educating their children from home, and the thousands of small arts and crafts businesses who rely on us for supplies to make their products," Hobby Lobby wrote in the statement. In a series of leaked memos obtained by Business Insider, Hobby Lobby initially refused to give employees paid sick leave and instead required ill workers to use up their paid-time-off and vacation days, before implementing an "emergency pay" program. Prior to the furlough, this emergency pay was slated to be 75% of an employee's regular earnings based "on the average hours [worked] during the previous six weeks." Additionally, company executives told managers it would "make every effort to continue working the employees" and later provided them with talking points for "how to respond and communicate if they are visited by a local authority that asks why we are open," according to a memo obtained by Business Insider. "We are prepared to reopen our stores in a responsible way when the current situation improves, and look forward to welcoming our valued customers back to our stores," Hobby Lobby wrote in the statement on Friday. "Until then, we pray for those affected by the virus, protection for the health care professionals caring for the sick, economic security for all impacted businesses and employees, and wisdom for our leaders."
