7 Things: Montgomery mayor claims masks work, another school system opts out of in-class learning, Jones wants reparations study and more …

7. Georgia isn’t allowed to require masks

While the statewide mask mandate has gone into effect across Alabama, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is banning any counties or cities from making any kind of mask requirements. Kemp has previously said that mask mandates are “a bridge too far.”
Georgia is still encouraging citizens to wear masks, but the motive in banning cities and counties from requiring masks is to fight an ongoing court battle between the state and the cities of Savannah, Athens, Augusta and Atlanta, all of which have created mask mandates.

6. GOP convention plans are changing

It’s officially been announced that plans for the Republican National Convention in August are going to be scaled back, as it’s taking place in Jacksonville, Florida, where coronavirus cases are still surging. The convention will include a hybrid of indoor and outdoor venues.
Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said that they “had hoped to be able to plan a traditional convention,” but there had to be a change “to comply with state and local health guidelines.” The first three days will only be open “to regular delegates,” or about 2,500 people. The last day will allow 6,000-7,000 attendants, and there will be “temperature checks, available PPE, aggressive sanitizing protocols, and available COVID-19 testing.”

5. Restaurant bans some public officials over mask requirements

The owner of restaurant Johnny Gryll’s 2, Mike Heffelfinger, in Huntsville posted on Facebook that Governor Kay Ivey, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, Madison Mayor Paul Finley, State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris, Madison County Commission Chair Dale Strong and Madison County Health Officer Dr. Karen Landers are all banned from the restaurant.
Heffelfinger posted that the “ban is in response to draconian health orders” that require those in Alabama to wear a face mask or covering in public. He claims that the order “creates unnecessary stress, liability, and physical, mental and financial burdens on the restaurant and its employees.”

4. Could there be a U.S. Senate debate?

Now that U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) knows that he’ll be facing off with former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville in the general election in November, he’s now taking interviews and discussing his opponent, and one thing he’s making clear is that he wants to debate.
Jones doesn’t think Tuberville will want to debate, noting that he refused every opportunity to debate former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the primary, but Jones has said that “debates are part of our democracy” and he’s “ready to debate any time, any place.”

3. Doug Jones is for “studying” reparations

It has been 150-plus years since the end of the Civil War and the abolishing of slavery, and it appears that media and their Democrats are ready to “study” the issue of reparations to African-Americans in some form. It just so happens to be happening in an election year when African-American turnout is expected to be key and after a North Carolina town pretended to do reparations.
Alabama’s junior U.S. Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) did his best to pander on this issue without actually taking a position or saying anything of substance by stating, “So I think the time is right now to at least find a way that we can at least study an issue about the original sin of America, to try to do something to see whether or not, what is the appropriate way, or if there should be some type of reparations going forward.”

2. Another county won’t reopen schools to start the fall semester

Mobile County is the largest school district in Alabama, and its leadership has decided that when they reopen school in the fall, it will be through virtual learning only as coronavirus cases are still on the rise across the state.
Superintendent Chresal Threadgill also announced that they’ll start classes on September 1, and school will happen remotely “for at least the first nine weeks of school.” Threadgill said, “[I]t is my obligation to protect the safety and well being of each of our 53,000 students and 8,000 employees.”

1. Montgomery claims success with masks

With another day of high coronavirus case numbers, adding 1,933 in one day, the state total is now at 60,158 cases. Alabama also had 17 more coronavirus deaths, making the total 1,200 since the start of the pandemic with 29,736 cases counted as recovered, but Alabama currently sits with more deaths per 100,000 than Florida and California.
Alabama’s mask ordinance has now gone into effect and Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, one of the early adopters of a mask order, told MSNBC that the growth of coronavirus cases has dropped by half and “hospitalizations are at the lowest level month-over-month in term of hospitalization with COVID-19 since April.”