Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has amended his March 19, 2020, order regarding the “Closure of All Businesses That Are Not Life Sustaining.” Commencement of enforcement actions against “non-life sustaining businesses that are out of compliance” was moved from March 21, 2020, at 12:01 a.m. to March 23, 2020, at 8:00 a.m., giving nonexempt businesses two additional days to prepare for closure or seek an exemption.
To read the full text of this Duane Morris Alert, please visit the firm website.
Governor John Carney issued his Forth Modification of the Declaration of a State of Emergency for the State of Delaware Due to a Public Health Threat, pursuant to which he has ordered the closure of non-essential business and commercial establishments in the state of Delaware (the “Non-Essential Business Closure Order”).
The order takes effect on Tuesday, March 24, 2002, at 8:00 a.m. and remains in effect “until after May 15, 2020, or the public health threat of COVID-19 has been eliminated . . . .” Violations of the Non-Essential Business Closure Order constitute a criminal offense.
To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris partner Brad Molotsky, please visit the Duane Morris Project Development/Infrastructure/P3 Blog.
Duane Morris attorneys Jonathan Wetchler and Eric Ruden will be the speakers at a Duane Morris Institute webinar, “Business Triage: Reductions in Force, Furloughs and Other Measures to Maintain Business Viability,” to be held on March 26, 2020, at 11:00 a.m.
his program will provide you with a working knowledge of:
• Potential approaches for managing workforce levels and costs
– Furloughs and recalls
– Compensation reductions
– Preparing for and implementing RIFs
– Employee communications
• Analyzing obligations under WARN and state/local mini-WARN laws
• Severance plan design strategies
• Unemployment compensation
• Key elements for separation agreements
To register, please visit the Duane Morris Institute website.
As you have likely been following, New York and New Jersey have issued similar but slightly different Stay at Home orders over the weekend. Pennsylvania has also issued a “non-life supporting” business physical locations shut down effective as of Friday, March 20, 2020. The list of what constitutes a “life-sustaining” business has been modified twice since the initial announcement.
As of March 22, 2020, the City of Philadelphia has declared by Executive Order, a similar Stay at Home Order.
To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris partner Brad Molotsky, please visit the Duane Morris Opportunity Zones Blog.
As you likely know, Governor Wolf of PA has issued a closure order for “non-life sustaining” businesses. There is a list online of the life sustaining businesses. All “non-life sustaining” businesses were required to close their physical locations as of Thursday at 8 PM. This Order was modified this morning, March 21, with a few changes to the list of businesses that qualify as “life sustaining” and a change to the process of requesting a waiver.
In response to Governor Wolf’s order, which includes construction in “non-life supporting” business column and which has shut down construction sites in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections offered guidance.
To read the full text of this blog post by Duane Morris partner Brad Molotsky, please visit the Duane Morris Opportunity Zones Blog.
USCIS announced at 2:19 PM on 3/20/2020 that Premium Processing services for I-129 (E-1, E-2, H-1B, H-2B, H-3, L-1A, L-1B, LZ, O-1, O-2, P-1, P-1S, P-2, P-2S, P-3, P-3S, Q-1, R-1, TN-1 and TN-2.) and I-140 (EB-1, EB-2 and EB-3) is suspended temporarily. Like many of us, USCIS service center operations have gone remote, so it is impossible for the agency to keep up with the demand for premium processing of applications.
In its announcement, USCIS indicates that it will attempt to adjudicate all petitions filed with the premium processing service before March 20, 2020 within the 15 -day time frame, but if that is not possible, it will refund premium processing fees. For applications not yet accepted, USCIS will accept the petition for regular processing, but reject the Premium Processing request and return the $1440 filing fee to petitioners.
To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris partner Valentine Brown, please visit the Duane Morris Immigration Law Blog.
NJ just announced Executive Order No. 107 on Saturday, March 21, 2020, which becomes effective at 9:00 p.m. tonight. This Order contains new standards for businesses which supersede previous announcements.
To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris partner Brad Molotsky, please visit the Duane Morris Opportunity Zones Blog.
As you are likely aware, on Thursday, March 19th, by Executive Order, the Wolf Administration ordered the physical location shut down of all “non-life sustaining” businesses in order to attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19.
A list of what qualifies as “non-life sustaining” was published as well as a Frequently Asked Questions document. Some businesses, like grocery stores, pharmacies, and hospitals are very logical, others are a bit more surprising (e.g., beer and liquor sales).
To read the full post by Duane Morris partner Brad Molotsky, please visit the Duane Morris Project Development/Infrastructure/P3 Blog.
Effective 11:59 p.m. EDT last night, the Canada-U.S. land border closed to all non-essential travel. This closure will initially be in effect for 30 days. Non-essential travel includes travel for tourism or recreational purposes. Trade and commerce will continue. The definition of what constitutes “essential” travel remains open to interpretation. Minister Blair today referred to “essential” as serving and keeping Canadians healthy and safe. Read the official statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
To read the full text of this post by Duane Morris partner Jet Stigter, please visit the Duane Morris Immigration Law Blog.
Governor Newsom’s Stay-at-Home Order requires “all individuals living in the State of California to stay home or at their place of residence except as needed to maintain continuity of the federal critical infrastructure sectors.” The Order exempted “16 critical infrastructure sectors whose . . . incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, economic security, public health, or any combination thereof.”
We all intuitively know academic institutions fit this description, and the Order agrees: “Government Facilities” are included as one of those 16 critical infrastructure sectors, and the cited-to guidance in the Order confirms that this includes an “Education Facilities Subsector [that] covers pre-kindergarten through 12th grade schools, institutions of higher education, and business and trade schools. The subsector includes facilities that are owned by both government and private sector entities.”
To read the full text of this article by Duane Morris attorney Bryce Young, please visit the Duane Morris UpdatED blog.
