In this excerpt from The Dennis Prager Show, host Dennis Prager interviews Angela Marsden, a restaurant owner who challenges Governor Gavin Newsom's sudden ban on outdoor dining. Marsden recounts how the ban disrupted her business, forced staff furloughs, and prompted her to file a lawsuit against the governor, arguing that the restriction is irrational and harmful to small‑business owners. The conversation sets the stage for a broader discussion of the ban’s economic and emotional toll and the owner’s decision to publicly oppose and legally contest the policy.
raised her voice against Governor Newsom's irrational ban on outdoor dining, and now she is suing him. Angela Marsden is her name. Angela, welcome to The Dennis Prager Show.
Hi Dennis, thanks for having me.
Why don't you briefly recount what happened with you?
Um, it seems a world away. Um, It was 2 days before Thanksgiving here in Los Angeles, in California. The governor announced that— I still get emotional recounting it— that he was going to shut down outdoor dining. Not very many of us actually survived to get to outdoor dining, but the ones of us that did worked very, very hard and spent money we did not have in order to do outdoor dyeing. And actually in October, it was the first month I saw a profit. I was getting ready to hire 3 new employees because we were so busy. Things were going so well and we followed all the protocols. You know, our tables were more than 7 feet apart. We wore gloves. We wore shields. We sanitized. You know, I have a mix of older and younger clients. So obviously, like, I would do anything I could to keep my community safe and my clients safe. At least the older ones. So I was very— plexiglass everywhere. I did everything I could and spent a lot of extra money to do it. So October went very well. I was excited. And then 2 days before Thanksgiving, which is one of the biggest dining days of the year, we were told we had to close the day before, the night before Thanksgiving. At that point for me, I had already done to-go. Actually, when we did the to-go in the beginning, We fed the hospitals. We did everything we could. We still were losing money every month. But when this happened, I was already running out of the loan money that I took from the small business loan that I have to pay back. And I sat down with my bookkeeper and he said, I think this is going to go on until February or March and we can't do to-go this time around because we lose too much money. So I had to tell my staff basically 2 days before Thanksgiving and before the holidays that they were furloughed and did not have a job. Most of my staff were newer, had lost 1 or 2 other jobs and were thankful just to have the job that they had. Some of them had been with me a while and their unemployment was running out. I remember my right-hand girl, my manager Lindsay, just started crying and she just said, I'm so scared. You know, I put on a good face and called my mom back in Indiana where I'm from, and, and she's like, just come home, you know, come home, forget LA, walk away from it. I said, well, I'll come home on vacation. And it was about 2 days later, I was in the mall, uh, I, I was depressed obviously after Thanksgiving, you know, furloughing my employees. I said, come back the following Friday, you'll get your check because we have a bi-payroll biweekly payroll. And it was the Friday before that that I decided I should go shopping because I was going to go home for a couple weeks and, you know, in December. And I was very, very depressed, and I thought would help. To my surprise, the mall was open, so I went to the mall Black Friday and no gloves No face shields, trying on whatever clothes I wanted. I just got more and more upset. And I called my mom and I said, you know, I've been in LA, you know, almost 28 years and it's beautiful. It's a beautiful city. And I can't just run away like everybody else, mom. I can't do it. And I gotta start speaking out because as a business owner, we're afraid to tell people how bad it is. Because we're afraid they'll think that we don't believe in COVID or that we don't care about them. We're afraid of the repercussions. We are embarrassed. It's very demoralizing what we've been through. So, you know, you kind of quietly die and go away, but I couldn't do it. So I got on Facebook and I just said, can't believe Black Friday, the malls open and they had to shut us down right before Thanksgiving. And I had then found my voice as far as no longer going to care. And I'm no longer going to be afraid. The truth has to be told and I'm not going to run like everybody else is. I'm going to, to tell the truth.
