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   From: methamphetamine.sales@latimes.com   
      
   OAKLAND, Calif. — Modoc County — one of California's most   
   desolate jurisdictions with no known coronavirus cases — says it   
   will allow bars, restaurants and churches to reopen Friday   
   despite Gov. Gavin Newsom's statewide lockdown.   
      
   “We’re not in this at all to defy anything. We align with the   
   plans. We’re just at a different phase in this because of where   
   we are and how we live,” Heather Hadwick, deputy director of the   
   county's Office of Emergency Services, told POLITICO on Thursday.   
      
   Modoc officials submitted a plan last week to Newsom outlining   
   their proposal to lift the statewide lockdown order, but the   
   governor has given no indication he intends to free individual   
   counties from his statewide restrictions. The county issued a   
   strategic reopening plan this week that would allow bars,   
   restaurants, churches and non-essential businesses to reopen   
   indoor operations with proper social distancing — all banned   
   under Newsom's current restrictions.   
      
   The plan still recommends that all at-risk residents — those 65   
   and older or who have underlying health conditions — remain at   
   home. Restaurants and bars would have to cut their maximum   
   capacity in half.   
      
   The rural outpost, like many counties far from the coast,   
   diverges from the California known nationally. Registered   
   Republicans outnumber Democrats more than 2-1, while 71 percent   
   of voters chose Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.   
      
   Maintaining physical distance is easier in the county of 9,600   
   residents, located in a 4,200-square-mile corner of northeast   
   California that borders Oregon and Nevada.   
      
   “It’s empty, and that’s on a normal day. If there's one or two   
   people in line at the grocery store, that’s odd.” she said.   
      
   Newsom on Thursday acknowledged he’s received requests from   
   Modoc and several other communities requesting to ease the   
   restrictions, but set “the next few weeks” as the timeline. He   
   said counties may be "more prescriptive and restrictive” than   
   the state guidelines, but looser measures will conflict with the   
   state order.   
      
   “Nothing would please me more than pleasing those local elected   
   officials and to help them help all of us move through this   
   pandemic,” he said. “But we're not out of the woods — no part of   
   the state, no part of this country, few parts of the globe have   
   been immune to this virus.”   
      
   Hadwick admitted the county will be reopening against state   
   orders, but said the governor “didn’t say he was challenging it”   
   in his remarks. If the state cracks down on Modoc County, “we   
   would work with him to try to figure something out that would   
   work with our county.”   
      
   Last week, lawmakers and local leaders representing six rural   
   Northern California counties — Yuba, Colusa, Tehama, Butte,   
   Sutter and Glenn — sent a letter to the governor requesting   
   permission for “a careful and phased reopening of our local   
   economies.”   
      
   Other counties, including Lassen County this week, have   
   submitted plans for reopening. Their argument is that the less   
   densely populated areas have had very different experiences with   
   the pandemic than other parts of the state, including the Bay   
   Area counties that this week announced plans to continue their   
   shelter-in-place restrictions through the end of May.   
      
   Lassen, Modoc, Trinity and Sierra are the four California   
   counties without a single confirmed coronavirus case.   
      
   “Somebody has to step up for rural California and we just   
   happened to be the first,” Hadwick said.   
      
   While the majority of businesses in the county are already   
   deemed essential, Hadwick said it would be different for others   
   — be it the one-chair barber or the few small restaurants — to   
   recover financially if the restrictions continue.   
      
   “Covid-19 looks very different in Modoc,” she said. “And it’s   
   not here.”   
      
   https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/04/30/smal   
   l-california-county-prepares-to-defy-newsom-by-opening-bars-   
   churches-1281627   
         
      
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