As Arkansas emerges as one of the states with the highest per capita COVID-19 deaths, Governor Asa Hutchinson on Thursday defended his decision to keep much of the economy, including schools, open during the pandemic.
"It's all about maintaining a balance through the last year, and we never shut down our economy in Arkansas — [I] did not think that was the right decision," Hutchinson told Cheddar.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences released a report on Tuesday that the state — with a total of 5,273 COVID deaths as of March 5 — has a higher per capita death rate than hard-hit states such as New York, Texas, Florida, and California
The governor, however, made the case that the state's higher death rate was not related to its pandemic response, but rather existing health indicators throughout the U.S. South.
"When you talk about the great tragedy of the death rates, that's sad," he said. "It's something that we want to avoid, but obviously when you look at the Southern states there's some health indicators that are not high on the scale, and I think history will look back and see exactly some of those reasons. But, I think we've maintained the balance through this here in Arkansas."
Hutchinson said he was aiming to end the state's mask mandate by March 31. At that point, the mandate would become guidance.
He noted that one criterion was the state reaching a positivity rate below 10 percent. The current rate is 2.9 percent.
The governor said private companies, however, will still have the right to mandate mask use, and that the state would incentivize them to follow the guidelines by offering liability protection.
"We also give them an incentive that if they follow guidelines, then they're going to have business liability immunity, so you can't be sued for somebody getting coronavirus if you're following the guidelines," he said.
Arkansas Near-Total Abortion Ban
Hutchinson also commented on his decision to sign a bill that represents a near-total ban on abortions in the state, including in cases of rape or incest, all but ensuring a challenge to Roe. v. Wade that could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
While the governor had expressed support for those exceptions in the past, he said he signed the bill due to his overall pro-life stance and desire to bring a challenge in front of the conservative Court.
"This was designed to give a challenge to the Supreme Court and an option to reverse Roe versus Wade," he said. "Yes, I would have preferred to have the rape and incest exceptions in there. I think that would make it more amenable to the Supreme Court to review the case, because it has more popular acceptance, but in Arkansas, you can override the governor's veto by a simple majority vote."
The bill had overwhelming support in the state legislature, he added.
The Biden administration on Tuesday quietly launched its website for Americans to request free at-home COVID-19 tests, a day before the site was scheduled to officially launch.
Just 27% of voters aged 18-29 approve of the job Biden is doing as president, according to a survey from The Economist and YouGov late last year. Santiago Mayer, executive director of Voters of Tomorrow, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss why President Biden is losing support among young voters.
Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of Accountable Tech, joins Cheddar News to discuss it being one year since Trump was exiled from social media and the former President's new platform 'Truth Social.'
Cliff Albright, co-founder of the group Black Voters Matter, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss why he boycotted President Biden's voting rights speech this week, and the push from Senate Democrats to debate and vote on the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) has teamed up with fellow Democratic senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly to introduce the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act, a bill to essentially end stock trading by sitting lawmakers. From the other side of the aisle, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced his own legislation to enact something similar. The dueling bills come at a time when it's popular to constrain members of Congress from owning and trading stocks. Karl Evers-Hillstrom, a business and lobbying reporter at The Hill, spoke to Cheddar about the significance of the bills, and what they could mean for lawmakers, their families, and staffers moving forward.
A second Starbucks location in the U.S. has officially voted to unionize. On Monday, the National Labor Relations Board announced workers at the Starbucks store located in the Buffalo, NY suburb of Cheektowaga voted 15-9 in favor of being represented by Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. The New York Times reports votes were tallied in December but remained inconclusive as the union challenged the ballots of several employees it said did not work at the store. A Starbucks spokesperson has said that it may appeal the labor board's decision, which comes as several other Starbucks stores across the country are also pushing to form a union. Danka Dragic, shift supervisor for the second Starbucks store in the country to unionize, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Earlier today, Minnesota Republican Representative, Tom Emmer, introduced a bill that would prevent the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency directly to American consumers. According to the Congressman from Minnesota, requiring Americans to open a fed account to access a digital currency, would "put the Fed on insidious path akin to China's digital authoritarianism." Rep. Tom Emmer joined Cheddar's None of The Above to discuss more.
Sixteen of the country's most prestigious universities have been hit with a lawsuit claiming those schools illegally conspired to eliminate competitive financial aid offers for students. Just some of the schools mentioned include Yale, Brown, Columbia, UPenn, and Cornell. Author of "Who Gets In and Why" and Professor of practice at Arizona State University, Jeff Selingo, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
