FRIDAY UPDATES: KC drops indoor mask mandate following new CDC guidance abc17news.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from abc17news.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File
Tuesday, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced he’d filed suit against St. Louis County Executive Sam Page, the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, and its Director, Faisal Khan over ongoing COVID restrictions.
The lawsuit says the restrictions put in place by Page Dr. Faisal Khan and the St. Louis County Department of Public Health were and are “arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.”
“This shouldn’t be about virtue signaling, this should be about the science,” Schmitt said. “Having outdoor masking requirements in St. Louis County is ridiculous. When you talk about school-age kids? Ridiculous. Talk about people having to get government permission for a barbecue? Ridiculous. Can sit next to a stranger on the bus but not next to a neighbor in church? Ridiculous.”
Members of a conference committee speak on May 12, 2021, about a law enforcement bill. The legislation, which includes a ban on police chokeholds and use of force database, passed the Senate with minimal opposition.
The bill would ban police from using chokeholds and would establish a use of force database for departments. It also eliminates the residency requirement for the Kansas City Police Department.
The Missouri Senate approved wide-ranging law enforcement changes on Wednesday.
It’s a bill that includes a host of ideas that have been pushed since Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, as well as the removal of the residency requirement for the Kansas City Police Department.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The St. Louis area has had lower per-capita rates of virus-related admissions in other areas of Missouri, but it has been stricter with public health protocols.
Page, along with St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, elected to loosen some of the restrictions due to the state s expanded vaccine rollout earlier in May.
The city s and county s updated order kept indoor masking and outdoor social distancing but lifted outdoor masking, all curfews, and increased occupancy in gathering places.
Doug Moore, a spokesman for Page, defended the county s regulations, adding that Schmitt s lawsuit is politically motivated given the speculation around his potential Senate bid.