Newsom has announced the State of Emergency will remain in place for the “endemic” phase. This is blatantly illegal.

Late Friday morning, I started getting a lot of calls from reporters. Newsom, I was told, had just convened a secret press briefing. It was “embargoed” until 2:30, meaning they weren’t allowed to report anything until then.

He’d announced three things. First, he was letting a bunch of Executive Orders expire. Second, he was continuing the emergency. Third, he was ending 12 other emergencies.

In a word, he was taunting us. These other emergencies were local matters lasting a few days; apparently, Newsom had forgotten to officially end them. So he made a show of doing so Friday, as if that somehow offset extending the COVID emergency.

By the end of the day, I’d gone on every Sacramento TV station to address Newsom’s ridiculous claim that ending the emergency would “cripple” our COVID response. States across the country have ended their emergencies. They remain uncrippled.

The COVID State of Emergency has now lasted 726 days, with a 2-year anniversary on Thursday. It has spawned 561 Executive Order provisions. And Newsom just declared this one-man rule to be permanent.

Thankfully, it’s not up to him. A lawsuit to end the emergency is moving forward and the Legislature will finally debate the matter on March 15. Most importantly, the California public has simply tuned him out.

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