Texas Attorney General warns cities and counties against putting policies into place during the pandemic that would be considered overreach.
Paxton has sent letters to cities like Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, and other Texas counties calling some of their policies, like orders to wear face coverings, 'unlawful,' and 'Orwellian.' No letter was sent, but Paxton called Harris County Judge LIna Hidalgo's mask order last month an example of bureaucratic overreach.
The Texas re-opening is not leading to a spike of new cases in Houston or Harris County; the number of new cases now averages between 100 and 200 a day. It was 786 on April 9th.
But, Fort Bend County is on the “locations to watch” list because it has recorded a 64.8 percent increase in numbers of cases. Governor Greg Abbott told our TV partner Channel Two the increase is not related to the re-opening of Texas.
"It relates to one of three conditions. One is a nursing home. Two is a jail, and three is a meat packing or meat processing facility," Abbott said. You can watch the rest of his interview below.
Elsewhere:
- The county has reported 159 new cases of COVID since May 4th.
- The Greater Houston area reported eight deaths yesterday for a total of 348.
- The state of Texas reported 29 new deaths for a total of 1,146.
- Some Texas bars are asking for permission to reopen for business on Friday. A group of them rallied at the State Capitol yesterday. Governor Abbott has not said when bars can come back.
- More retail stores are re-opening; Burlington will open back up Friday, and Nordstrom opened up yesterday.