Across the U.S., state and local officials are trying to balance the competing priorities of protecting their citizens from the coronavirus while keeping the economy running. Add into the mix strong feelings about individual freedom, weak and sometimes contradictory guidance from the federal government, and a highly partisan political atmosphere, and that balancing act suddenly becomes a wrestling match.

Take Georgia for example, where Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is suing the Democratic mayor of Atlanta over its face mask mandate. Kemp filed the lawsuit Thursday, a day after issuing an executive order banning cities from requiring face coverings. President Donald Trump also visited Atlanta on Wednesday, arriving at the airport without a face mask. The circumstance prompted Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who earlier tested positive for the virus but was asymptomatic, to question the timing of the lawsuit.

With case counts rising rapidly in Georgia, more than a dozen cities and counties have defied Kemp and issued local orders requiring masks.

Meanwhile, in Louisiana, Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry issued a legal opinion from quarantine on Wednesday stating Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ order requiring face coverings and limiting bar service and indoor gathering is “likely unconstitutional and unenforceable.” Landry is in quarantine after announcing Tuesday that he tested positive for the virus but had no symptoms.

Yale University law professor David Schleicher says in cases like Georgia’s, where it is the state versus local government, the state almost always wins. The showdown over coronavirus regulations there is just one part of a broader pattern of states overruling cities that is “particularly intense in red states with very blue cities in them” like Georgia.

But where the conflict is between two state entities, like the governor and the legislature or the attorney general, the outcome is not so certain. “Most states give governors emergency powers of extraordinary scope,” he said. “That’s not to say it is absolute.”

In other developments:

  • Millions more children in the U.S. learned Friday that they're unlikely to return to classrooms full time in the fall due to the coronavirus pandemic, as officials laid out new details of what lies ahead after summer vacation.
  • Joe Biden unveiled a plan to reopen schools in the era of coronavirus, seeking to establish federal safety guidelines that he says will be based on science and not on political pressure for the country to arbitrarily put the pandemic behind it. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's proposal ultimately leaves final decisions up to state and local officials.
  • A new plan from Senate Republicans to award businesses, schools, and universities sweeping exemptions from lawsuits arising from inadequate coronavirus safeguards is putting Republicans and Democrats at loggerheads as Congress reconvenes next week to negotiate another relief package.
  • A major source of income for roughly 30 million unemployed people is set to end, threatening their ability to meet rent and pay bills and potentially undercutting the fragile economic recovery. In March, Congress approved an extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits as part of its $2 trillion relief package aimed at offsetting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. That additional payment expires next week unless it gets renewed.
  • It's about to get tough to buy lumber or a sump pump without wearing a mask. Rivals Home Depot and Lowe's both announced that they will require customers to wear masks in their stores, joining other major retailers this week that have instituted similar requirements, including Walmart, Target, Kroger, CVS, Kohl's and Best Buy.
  • The leading manufacturer of N95 masks in the U.S., 3M, says it has investigated 4,000 reports of fraud, counterfeiting and price gouging in connection with the product and filed 18 lawsuits as a result.
  • The 42 venues for next year’s delayed Tokyo Olympics have been secured and the competition schedule will remain almost identical to the one that would have been used this year.
  • In nursing homes across the U.S., life is as frozen as when the lockdown began four months ago. Today, as some states tiptoe toward allowing nursing home visits again, most remain walled off.

For more summaries and full reports, select from the articles below.

Retailers requiring face masks

These are the national chains requiring customers to wear masks, face coverings

Become a #ThisIsTucson member! Your contribution helps our team bring you stories that keep you connected to the community. Become a member today.