Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts threatened to withhold $100 million of federal funding allocated to counties in his state if they mandate residents wear a face mask to protect against the coronavirus. "Counties are not prohibited from requiring masks, but if they want CARES Act money, they have to be fully open, and that means they cannot deny service for not wearing a mask," Taylor Gage, the governor's spokesman, told the Omaha World-Herald. “We’d like to have a little bit more ability to call the shots in our courthouse, but we realize that he has the right to set the rules,” Deb Schorr, a Lancaster County Board member and past president of the Nebraska Association of County Officials, told the newspaper. In the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Ricketts held off on implementing a statewide shutdown and instead allowed counties to decide for themselves when to close their local businesses, despite warnings from health officials.

Source: Fox News June 19, 2020 19:07 UTC