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      America’s mask wars return as communities split over new guidance

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      CoronavirusAmerica’s mask wars return as communities split over new guidance The CDC has advised people to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status, prompting a political fight in several US states

      Eviction crisis after Biden and Congress fail to extend ban
      Mike Jordan in AtlantaSat 31 Jul 2021 13.02 EDTFirst published on Sat 31 Jul 2021 08.37 EDTOn Wednesday, Georgia governor Brian Kemp used his official Twitter account to say his state “will not lock down or impose statewide mask mandates”.California expands Covid restrictions as Delta variant threat growsRead moreIt was not the first time the Republican had expressed firm opposition to mandatory face coverings to curb the spread of Covid-19. It was also not the first time Kemp’s resistance to mask mandates met with equally firm resistance from the mayor of Atlanta. Hours later, Keisha Lance Bottoms issued an executive order mandating that masks be worn indoors throughout the Georgia state capital.“Public health experts overwhelmingly agree, and data has proved, that wearing a face covering helps slow the spread of this deadly virus,” Mayor Bottoms said in a statement.“As Covid-19 rates increase, we must remain vigilant, wear a mask, follow [federal] guidelines and other measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our communities.”The two leaders have clashed publicly over mask requirements since last summer, on Twitter and in court. A year ago Kemp filed a lawsuit against Bottoms, stating that the mayor “does not have the legal authority to modify, change or ignore” his executive orders forbidding municipal officials from mandating that citizens wear masks.Businesses in Georgia have attempted to avoid offending customers while trying to promote safety after a period of economic challenges.Many restaurant owners declined to comment on the record, saying through representation that the subject was “too toxic”. Others seemed inclined to strike a careful balance.“Our staff is fully vaccinated and we rely on our customers to decide for themselves to wear, or not to wear, masks,” said Chris Green, chief marketing officer of Legends Distillery, which will open in Atlanta’s northern suburbs in mid-August.Paulina de La Valette, co-owner of the Atlanta dance studio Dance 101, sent a note to newsletter subscribers saying the company would “encourage” members to wear masks but would not issue a rule. She opened the newsletter with a bit of political humor: “Welp, Georgia’s favorite divorced parents, Brian Kemp & Keisha Lance Bottoms, are fighting again and we’re in the middle of it … awesome.”Kemp and Bottoms are not the only officials arguing it out. Disagreements over whether people can opt out of wearing masks are also causing passionate political arguments in other southern states, including Texas.Two days after the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released updated guidance recommending Americans wear masks indoors, Governor Greg Abbott signed an executive order stopping municipalities and government agencies from compelling Texans to do so, or even to require Covid vaccines.Abbott is threatening fines of up to $1,000 against local government entities in Texas, days after officials in Austin, Dallas and Houston urged residents to return to mask-wearing.Abbott was joined in denouncing mandates by the Texas senator Ted Cruz, who said: “The CDC has lost its credibility when it comes to what decisions Americans should make about Covid-19. It’s long past time we got back to trusting the American people, not unelected federal bureaucrats.”Elsewhere in the southern US, Florida is grappling with rising Covid cases, having experienced a 50% increase in positivity in a week. Still, Governor Ron Desantis says he wants parents to decide if their children wear masks to school, not local government.Late on Friday, DeSantis signed an executive order that allowed parents to ignore mask mandates. A month ago, the governor signed the “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” which he cited on Friday as a legal rationale for his decision on masks.DeSantis’s order came after the mayors of Orange and Miami-Dade Counties defied him by instituting requirements for facial coverings and, in Orange County, full vaccination for non-union county employees by the end of September. Disney World also just required all visitors aged two and older to wear face coverings, regardless of vaccination status, indoors and in certain modes of its company-owned transit.It all leads to confusion, said Carlton Solle, co-founder of G95, a protective apparel company in the Atlanta area that has been making facial coverings since 2016.Solle told the Guardian business increased with the need for masks under Covid, so he began making masks in addition to scarves and neck gaiters. He also said a lack of understanding and education may keep people from fully protecting themselves.“Unfortunately,” he said, “I think the messaging has changed so much that now you have folks who were supportive of wearing masks questioning what the hell’s going on, because it constantly changes.”Solle said he pulled his daughter out of school in the Atlanta area before other parents because he was concerned about the spread of the virus. After realizing home-schooling presented challenges he hadn’t considered, he sent her back. But the experience made him wish things had been handled differently when Covid first began to spread.“If they would have just said, ‘Hey, suit up, be cautious and keep on rolling,’ I think it would have been a better way of approaching this. But I think shutting everything down and the politics getting involved just made it so messy and complicated.”TopicsCoronavirusUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      IRS must turn over Trump tax returns to Congress, DoJ says

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      Donald TrumpIRS must turn over Trump tax returns to Congress, DoJ saysDepartment says House panel has ‘sufficient reasons’ for requesting returns as Nancy Pelosi hails ‘victory for the rule of law’ Joan E Greve in Washington, Martin Pengelly in New York and agenciesFri 30 Jul 2021 17.40 EDTFirst published on Fri 30 Jul 2021 14.58 EDTThe US Department of Justice on Friday ordered the Internal Revenue Service to hand Donald Trump’s tax returns to a House committee, saying the panel had “invoked sufficient reasons” for requesting them.Trump pressured DoJ officials to falsely claim election corrupt, memos showRead moreThe news was a second blow for Trump in a matter of hours, after released DoJ memos revealed that as part of his campaign to overturn his election defeat by Joe Biden, he pressured top officials to falsely label the 2020 election as corrupt, then “leave the rest to me”.House speaker Nancy Pelosi applauded the DoJ’s order to the IRS to release Trump’s tax returns to the ways and means committee.“Today, the Biden administration has delivered a victory for the rule of law, as it respects the public interest by complying with Chairman [Richard] Neal’s request for Donald Trump’s tax returns,” Pelosi said in a statement.“Access to former President Trump’s tax returns is a matter of national security. The American people deserve to know the facts of his troubling conflicts of interest and undermining of our security and democracy as president.”Candidates for president traditionally disclose their tax returns, although they are not legally compelled to do so. Trump kept his out of the public eye when he ran for the White House in 2016, saying they were under IRS audit, and did not release them while in office.Once Democrats took control of the House in 2018, amid the investigation of Russian election interference and links between Trump and Moscow by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, they began to seek the records in court.Trump fought hard to keep his tax returns out of the public eye but the New York Times obtained some of the records, which showed Trump paid almost nothing in federal income taxes in the years before he entered the White House.In a memo on Friday, the DoJ Office of Legal Counsel said Neal, the Massachusetts congressman who chairs the ways and means committee, had “invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former president’s tax information”.Under federal law, the OLC said, the Department of the Treasury “must furnish the information to the committee”.The 39-page memo was signed by Dawn Johnsen, installed by the Biden administration as the acting head of the OLC.Trump’s treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said he would not turn over Trump’s tax returns because they were being sought for partisan reasons.The House ways and means committee sued for the records under a federal law that says the IRS “shall furnish” the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers. The committee said it needed Trump’s taxes for an investigation into whether he complied with tax law.Trump’s justice department defended Mnuchin’s refusal and Trump intervened to try to prevent the materials from being turned over to Congress. Under a court order from January, Trump would have 72 hours to object after the Biden administration formally changes the government’s position in the lawsuit.Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat who chairs the House ways and means subcommittee on oversight, said: “It is about damn time. Our committee first sought Donald Trump’s tax returns on 3 April 2019 – 849 days ago. Our request was made in full accordance with the law and pursuant to Congress’s constitutional oversight powers.”Daniel Goldman, an attorney who counselled Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment inquiry and trial, said: “The former OLC opinion supporting Mnuchin’s ability to withhold Trump’s tax returns was perhaps the most egregious and baseless opinion of many bad ones during the Trump era.”Michael Stern, a former senior counsel for the House Office of General Counsel, told Politico Trump had options to stop the release of his returns.“I think Trump will be given an opportunity to either file a new case or file something in this case in which he states his legal grounds for objecting to his tax returns being produced,” he said, adding: “It’s definitely not over yet.”Elsewhere, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, has obtained copies of Trump’s personal and business tax records as part of a criminal investigation.Trump tried to prevent his accountants from handing over the documents, taking the issue to the supreme court. The justices rejected Trump’s argument that he had broad immunity as president.Speaking to Reuters about the DoJ order, Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota law professor who was ethics counsel to George W Bush, said it seems the Biden justice department “is no longer going to simply kowtow to Donald Trump”.“Every other president has disclosed their tax returns” he said, “and finding out what the conflicts of interest are on the president or a former president who may have made decisions that now have to be revisited – that’s critically important.”TopicsDonald TrumpUS politicsUS elections 2020newsReuse this content More