Barbers band together against shutdown

A Texas hair salon owner traveled to Michigan this week to show solidarity with an embattled barber. Shelley Luther, who spent time in jail for opening her business in Dallas during the state’s coronavirus shutdown, appeared with Karl Manke, 77, who lost his license when he defied Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order to keep his Owosso, Mich., barber and beauty shop closed.

Are protests continuing in Michigan? A group of barbers organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition plans to offer free haircuts on the lawn of the state Capitol in Lansing on Wednesday to draw attention to their plight as small business owners hurt by the governor’s shutdown orders. “We don’t want to have to write tickets, but if that’s what’s necessitated, it may have to happen,” Whitmer said. Restaurants and bars in the more rural northern regions of Michigan can reopen on Friday. The state announced on Tuesday it has recorded 52,350 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 5,017 deaths, and 28,234 recoveries.

Dig deeper: Read Sophia Lee’s report about protests brewing in California.