Outdoor dining in Alameda County moves forward, again

Business is starting to come back to life in Alameda County — at least theoretically. The state government on Wednesday approved the county's request for a variance from coronavirus restrictions, effectively allowing outdoor dining to resume. The move comes three days into Alameda County, which has had more than 150 deaths and 8,500 cases of coronavirus, being placed on the state’s County Monitoring List. Alameda County health officials abruptly pulled the plug last Friday on outdoor service…