As the great reopening debate continues, some state and local officials are not seeing eye to eye on when stay-at-home orders and business closures should end.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is one such local official who is speaking out against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's plan to reopen businesses such as gyms, nail salons, barbershops, and bowling alleys this Friday, April 24.
"It doesn't make sense to me," Bottoms told Cheddar. "There's nothing essential about a bowling alley or a movie theater."
Bottoms, a Democrat, said that she had previously worked closely with the Republican governor.
"Governor Kemp and I have had a very good working relationship over the past couple of years, and we communicate regularly, but I was surprised along with a number of mayors," she said.
The mayor said Kemp did not consult her in the development of the plan or provide details on which businesses would be allowed to reopen. She also expressed disappointment that the governor did not provide flexibility to local governments to alter the plan based on local needs.
"We recognize that the economy is a huge consideration for people. My mother owned a small business, a hair salon, for many years. This would have been devastating to her. But I do know we need to be able to live to fight another day."
Bottoms said that Georgia is still seeing an uptick in cases, despite a steady flattening of the curve, and that the plan is coming prematurely.
"To the extent that we've had any success in our state, it's because we've been very aggressive in Atlanta and in surrounding metro cities to close down businesses and encourage people to stay home," she said.
A new report by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China warns that press freedom in the most populous country in the world is declining at an alarming speed. Cheddar News speaks with Steven Butler, Asia Program Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, about the hardships journalists face in China.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C. 1st District) joined Cheddar to discuss her cannabis legalization bill, the States Reform Act, and the prospects for gaining bipartisan support for a bill that has garnered the endorsement of e-commerce giant Amazon. This legislation is supported by businesses large and small, Amazon obviously being the most recent and largest business to support it," Mace said. "They don't want to sell pot. But what it does do is it affects their working employment pool." She stated that 10 percent of eligible new hires for Amazon are affected by restrictive marijuana laws. The representative also explained that the bill leaves equity provisions up to the states rather than mandating them on a federal level.
After a number of tragic subway incidents, the MTA is facing increased pressure to install subway platform screens to help prevent injury or death. However, according to an earlier report from the MTA, installing these prevented measures isn't feasible. New York City Council Member Keith Powers, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
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Cryptocurrency is expected to become a part of our daily lives — but what sort of environmental impact does it have? As the U.S. becomes the crypto mining capital of the world, climate advocates are worried about mining companies reopening old coal plants, using massive amounts of energy, wasteful hardware, and more. Congressional Democrats led by Senator Elizabeth Warren are demanding answers from mining firms about their electricity use and waste levels. John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna Computing, joins Cheddar Climate to discuss the congressional letters, how crypto mining can become a green industry, and more.
The Supreme Court will reconsider race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The court will examine admissions policies at Harvard University and The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, which count the race of applicants as a factor in admissions. The court has upheld affirmative action policies in the past, saying it helps to create more diverse student bodies. However, the conservative Supreme Court could be skeptical and even possibly hostile to such policies. Nick Anderson, Higher Education Writer, Washington Post joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
