Black rodeo, Seth Meyers, game plans: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Montgomery: State health officials are encouraged by a decline in COVID-19 cases about a month after a state mask order took effect but are cautioning that people should not abandon precautions as the state heads to Labor Day gatherings and school openings. “Things are encouraging, at the moment, in terms of the numbers of new cases per day, in terms of the percent positives and in terms of the track of hospitalizations. All those are better this week,” State Health Officer Scott Harris said Thursday. The seven-day average number of daily cases has dropped below 1,000, after being 1,800 in mid-July. The number of hospitalized patients has dropped from about 1,600 to 1,400, and the percentage of positive tests has dropped to 12.3%, down from 16.7%. Since the pandemic began, more than 100,000 people in Alabama have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 1,800 people in the state have died of the virus.

Alaska

Anchorage: Some churches in the city have recently defied the emergency order limiting the size of gatherings in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Anchorage health order prohibits indoor gatherings of more than 15 people in public, including religious services, Alaska Public Media reports. Anchorage Baptist Temple, one of the municipality’s largest churches, held in-person services Sunday, Aug. 9, about a week after the emergency order took effect. Pastor Ron Hoffman said in his sermon that while congregants are normally called to obey civil authority, they should not obey authority conflicting with God’s teachings. A handful of other churches indicated they are not complying with the measure, including Wellspring Ministries in Anchorage and King’s Chapel in Eagle River. Other churches, temples and a mosque in Anchorage have said they are complying with the municipality’s order.

Arizona

Phoenix: A school district that had planned to resume in-person classes against the advice of public health officials is now backing off after teachers refused to show up. The J.O. Combs Unified School District in Pinal County announced classes will be canceled Monday, and it’s unclear when they’ll resume. “We have received an overwhelming response from staff indicating that they do not feel safe returning to classrooms with students,” Superintendent Gregory Wyman wrote in a letter to parents. “In response, we have received a high volume of staff absences for Monday citing health and safety concerns.” Wyman said all classes are canceled, including virtual classes. The Arizona Department of Health Services has set benchmarks for the gradual reopening of in-person instruction, though school districts are not required to follow them. No county has met the threshold at which health officials say it’s safe to resume partial in-person instruction.

Arkansas

Little Rock: The state’s high school football stadiums will be limited to two-thirds capacity because of the coronavirus, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday. Hutchinson issued new rules for school sports venues under which spectators will have to keep a 6-foot distance and wear a mask if they’re at least 10 years old. Hutchinson said he’s looking to the schools and their athletic officials to enforce the rules. Bleachers will have to be restricted so that every other row is empty, a move that the directive said could actually put a venue’s capacity at 25% to 50%, the requirements said. The new rules mean school athletic facilities won’t have to get state approval beforehand to host games. The state currently allows large venues such as theaters and arenas to fill up to two-thirds capacity but requires state approval if there are more than 100 attendees.

California

Fresno: Students at a private school attended their second day of in-person classes Friday despite state and county orders to close the campus. Fresno County will seek a court restraining order to close Immanuel Schools in Reedley, county Director of Public Health David Pomaville said. Immanuel Schools offers kindergarten through 12th grade classes on a single campus. It was ordered to close Thursday after it reopened classrooms in violation of a state health order aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Fresno County said the private Christian school with about 600 students cannot use its classrooms until the county is removed from a state monitoring list for two weeks. “Immanuel Schools and all Fresno County schools have an obligation to protect the health and safety of all students and faculty,” Pomaville said in an earlier statement. One parent told the Fresno Bee that it was the parents’ right to send their students to class.

Colorado

Fort Collins: As bars and restaurants closed at the start of the state’s COVID-19 outbreak, sales at liquor, convenience and grocery stores soared – the one bright spot in an otherwise dreary retail picture. And it’s been a welcome boon to the stores’ and city’s coffers. In Fort Collins, grocery, convenience and liquor stores generate about $45 million in monthly taxable sales, resulting in more than $1 million in tax revenue. After suffering a more than 20% drop in sales tax revenue in May – reflecting purchases made in April, the first full month of shutdowns – tax revenue has stabilized somewhat. For June sales reported in July, tax collections were down just 3.8% from a year earlier, a negative trend for the past three months but much improved from the start of the pandemic. “We’re pleased and surprised and confused” by the numbers, said Fort Collins interim chief financial officer Travis Storin.

Connecticut

Hartford: State education officials, concerned about the emotional trauma children have faced during the coronavirus pandemic, are making social and emotional learning a priority as schools make plans to reopen in the fall. Gov. Ned Lamont met with education and mental health officials to discuss the issue in a video conference Friday. He announced a partnership between the state and Yale University for a program that is designed to train teachers in how to deal with the stress they and their students have been facing since March. Lamont said he knew the state was having an issue when children who had been isolated at home for months began calling the state’s 2-1-1 hotline this summer, looking for someone to talk to about their fears, loneliness and other issues. The training program, developed by Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, is being offered to all Connecticut school staff through a grant from Dalio Education.

Delaware

Wilmington: The State Board of Education on Friday morning approved a delayed start of middle and high school sports until December, with fall sports being played in March and April, sandwiched between similarly abbreviated winter and spring seasons. The vote was 5-2 in a virtual meeting that lasted nearly 2¹/₂ hours and included passionate sentiment during a public comment period for the state board to reconsider. Practices for fall high school sports were originally set to begin Monday. Because the decisions involving sports are part of a state-issued emergency regulations, they may be revisited and revised at any time by the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association. Board member Audrey Noble, who made the motion to approve the DIAA’s ruling earlier this month, said that “as schools open around the country, we’re learning, unfortunately, that younger people are more susceptible to the virus than was first thought.”

District of Columbia

Washington: Metro trains resumed their normal schedules Sunday, following months of limited service during the pandemic, WUSA-TV reports. “We won’t be able to guarantee social distancing,” said Dan Stressel, a spokesperson for Metro. “We’re going to do everything we can to monitor, to provide riders with tools so that they can find out when the busiest times are and all those sorts of things.” The Metro slowed down drastically during the height of the pandemic. Stressel said ridership has also gone down, now at a tenth of what it normally would be on any given day. Masks will still be required for every Metro rider. Three stations still have some construction activity that will continue before the end of that summer: the Vienna, Dunn Loring and East Falls Church. Those stations are expected to reopen on the Tuesday after Labor Day.

Florida

Fort Lauderdale: The state’s high school athletic board voted Friday to begin practices for football and other fall sports Aug. 24 and games less than two weeks later, pushing aside the advice of its medical experts who said competition should not resume for at least six weeks because of the coronavirus outbreak. The Florida High School Athletic Association board voted 11-5 to begin practices this month. It’s a plan endorsed by its executive director, George Tomyn, although it could mean the state’s largest counties – Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach – plus some others with major outbreaks might choose to delay their seasons and forgo participation in the statewide playoffs. Carlos Ochoa, a Miami-Dade board member who introduced the adopted measure, said it gives districts and schools the most flexibility. Gov. Ron DeSantis has been calling for schools to reopen, including the resumption of sports.

Georgia

Atlanta: Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration says numbers show the state is making progress in its fight against COVID-19, despite a leaked federal report urging the state to take stronger steps, a per capita infection rate that is the third-worst in the country over the past two weeks, and soaring death totals after weeks of high illness levels. Kemp spokesperson Candice Broce said Friday that Kemp planned to sign an executive order Saturday giving cities and counties the power to require masks on government property under certain conditions but not on private property. Broce said local governments could order face coverings on public property “if they meet specific health-related metrics” but said the order would contain exceptions and limit penalties. Previous orders have contained unanticipated surprises.

Hawaii

Honolulu: Days before the first day for public school students across the islands, the statewide teachers union filed a complaint with the state Labor Relations Board over working conditions from increasing COVID-19 infections. It’s the latest move by the Hawaii State Teachers Association fighting against the state Department of Education’s plans to reopen schools amid a pandemic. The complaint – filed late Thursday afternoon, when the state reported a record 355 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 – says teachers are being forced into hazardous workplaces. Most public schools will start the academic year Monday with online instruction. The union is asking that all schools go online until at least the end of the first quarter. Union President Corey Rosenlee said despite education officials’ announcements about starting with online instruction, many students will be coming to campuses starting Monday.

Idaho

Boise: A wildland firefighter who was working with about 270 other people on a small fire has tested positive for coronavirus, officials said. The Idaho Department of Lands said the person who tested positive and those who were working with the individual were isolated and returned to their home unit without interacting with other fire crews or nearby communities. Officials are working on contact tracing. Two other people also working on the Pumpkin fire appeared to have symptoms like those seen in COVID-19, but they tested negative for the illness. State and federal wildland firefighting agencies have taken several steps in hopes of reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission, including having crews camp separately, using air drops to deliver meals and having staffers wear masks when they can’t maintain social distancing. So far, more than 25,500 people in Idaho have tested positive for coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Illinois

Chicago: The state reported Saturday that 1,828 more people had tested positive for the coronavirus, and five more people had died as a result of the virus. Saturday’s announcement came a day after the state’s Department of Public Health announced that Friday’s 2,264 positive tests marked the third day in a week that the number of positive tests had surpassed the 2,000 mark, as well as the largest increase in confirmed cases in nearly three months. In one bit of encouraging news, statistical data from Saturday shows that the state’s seven-day positivity rate dropped to 3.98%, marking the first time the rate has fallen below 4% since Aug. 5. State officials say recent outbreaks have been traced to weddings, businesses, birthday parties, long-term care facilities and other congregate settings, bars, sports camps, and households.

Indiana

Indianapolis: The Indiana Election Commission deadlocked Friday on whether to let all residents vote by mail due to the coronavirus pandemic. During a virtual commission meeting, the four-person board was split along party lines on a proposal that would allow all voters to cast a ballot by mail in November. Generally, the state’s voters must provide an accepted, specific reason to use an absentee ballot, including being over age 65, residing outside the country or having to work while the polls are open. Under the stay-at-home order in June, those exceptions were lifted, allowing anyone the option to vote by mail. For now, however, Indiana remains one of nine states that don’t have no-excuse-needed absentee voting for the November election. More than 37,000 absentee ballot applications have been submitted already, said Anthony Long, a Democrat on the commission. At this time in 2016, there were just 109.

Iowa

Ames: Another 75 students have tested positive for COVID-19 as they moved back to campus at Iowa State University, the university announced Friday. The university has been testing all students living in residence halls or on-campus housing as they move in before classes start Monday. The 75 students were among 3,472 students tested between Aug. 7 and Thursday, which represents a 2.2% positivity rate, the university said. That is the same positivity rate reported the previous week, when 66 positive coronavirus cases were found among the 3,037 students tested. The university reserved two halls for students with positive tests to quarantine or isolate, or they may quarantine at home if they wish, university officials said.

Kansas

Kansas City: President Donald Trump’s top coronavirus adviser used a visit to the state to urge people to wear masks regardless of where they live. “What’s really important for every Kansan to understand is that this epidemic that we have been seeing this summer is both urban and rural,” Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said Saturday. “So we are really asking all communities, whether you are urban or rural communities, to really wear a mask inside, outside, every day.” She also stressed that people should socially distance and not have gatherings while in Kansas City for a meeting with Gov. Laura Kelly, as well as community and state health officials at KU Medical Center, The Kansas City Star reports. “You can’t tell who’s infected,” Birx said. “Much of the spread is asymptomatic. I know we all want to believe that our family members cannot be positive. They are.”

Kentucky

Frankfort: Voters concerned about being at risk of contracting COVID-19 will be able to cast mail-in ballots under a bipartisan agreement reached by the state’s governor and secretary of state. Rules for the November general election also include three weeks of in-person early voting, including Saturdays, to prevent a crush of Election Day voting, according to the plan unveiled Friday by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams. “It shows that Democrats and Republicans can still agree on something,” the governor said. Beshear signed an executive order outlining procedures in the agreement, which he said was “easy to reach” with the state’s chief election officer. Adams recently offered a preliminary plan to Beshear, and the governor praised him for “putting ideology on the shelf.” The plan stops short of no-excuse absentee voting by mail for all voters but still gives Kentuckians wide latitude in requesting absentee ballots.

Louisiana

Baton Rouge: Authorities have arrested three women accused of assaulting a teenage restaurant hostess because they were upset they couldn’t all be seated together due to coronavirus distancing rules. The 17-year-old hostess told news outlets she was working at a Baton Rouge Chili’s last weekend when a party of 11 people arrived and wanted to be seated together. She said the restaurant’s coronavirus policies stipulated no more than six people could be seated at a table. When she told the group they couldn’t be seated all together, they became irate, she said. When she brought her manager over, the group of women attacked the teen, she said, adding they pushed her and began beating her. The worker said she was trying to defend herself when one woman hit her with a “wet floor” sign, leaving her bleeding. The victim received moderate injuries and sought treatment at a hospital, Baton Rouge police spokesman Sgt. Don Coppola Jr. said.

Maine

Portland: The state has spent more than $33 million on masks, gowns and other supplies meant to keep health care workers safe during the pandemic. With funds provided through federal coronavirus relief legislation, Maine has been working to acquire everything from disposable gloves to jugs of hand sanitizer to custom-fitting respirator masks, the Bangor Daily News reports. The personal protective equipment has been distributed to health care providers, nursing homes, schools, state employees and other groups. The $33.8 million figure from Maine’s Department of Administrative and Financial Services doesn’t include personal protective equipment the state received from the federal stockpile or independent purchases by the state’s health care organizations. The largest portion of Maine’s PPE funding – $20.7 million – has gone to protective clothing such as gowns and isolation suits, according to state procurement data.

Maryland

Baltimore: Hundreds of thousands of people in the state do not have access to high-speed internet. The Baltimore Sun reports the long-standing problem has become more acute as school and work move online during the coronavirus pandemic. A 2019 report from a state task force estimated that 324,000 rural Marylanders lack access to high-speed internet. An estimate from the Abell Foundation shows that more than 40% of Baltimore’s households lack access. Government and private programs are trying to connect residents to broadband. But some worry service won’t come soon enough. One challenge is that providers often are unwilling to cover some rural areas because it costs more to build a network, and there are fewer customers. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan created the state’s Office of Rural Broadband to help secure federal funds and offers grants to offset costs. But local officials say it can be a very slow process.

Massachusetts

Hull: State officials are reducing capacity limits at a beach in the town over concerns of overcrowding as coronavirus cases surge in the coastal community south of Boston. The state Department of Conservation and Recreation announced Friday that parking capacity at Nantasket Beach State Reservation would be reduced to 50% until further notice. Earlier last week, state officials added Hull to the list of communities in the highest-risk category for the coronavirus. Beach towns on Cape Cod have taken similar steps to reduce crowds at the beaches this summer.

Michigan

Lansing: Schools that deem it safe to provide in-person classes during the coronavirus pandemic would have to prioritize the option for K-5 students under legislation that would also largely base districts’ state funding on last year’s pupil count to account for enrollment uncertainty in coming weeks. The bills, which were approved 23-15 and 24-14 by the Senate in a rare Saturday session, reflect a deal announced late Friday by legislative leaders and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The House will vote Monday. The agreement, which does not include state school funding for the state fiscal year that begins in a month and a half, was criticized by superintendents and backed by teacher unions. It would waive a requirement that schools have 1,098 hours and 180 days of instruction. They must still provide the educational or course content that would have been delivered in a typical academic year.

Minnesota

Minneapolis: As students prepare to return to colleges and universities, state health officials made a plea Friday for them to stay home and avoid crowded bars, house parties and road trips during what’s left of their summer vacation so they don’t bring the coronavirus to campus. “Lay low before you go,” said Kris Ehresmann, the infectious disease director at the Minnesota Department of Health. The choices that students make on whether to follow social distancing and masking guidance could have “a dramatic impact” on whether their college or university is able to continue offering in-person classes amid the pandemic this fall, she said. The department started to see outbreaks this summer associated with bars popular with college-age people in Mankato, Minneapolis, Duluth, Bemidji and St. Cloud, but Ehresmann said there’s no specific city or campus that health officials are worried about.

Mississippi

Jackson: As schools are opening up across the state and dealing with outbreaks of coronavirus, Gov. Tate Reeves issued a new rule Friday limiting spectators at K-12 sports games, band concerts and other extracurricular activities. No more than two people per student participating will be able to attend any school extracurricular event, and each event must also have a “dedicated safety officer” to ensure all social distancing measures are followed, Reeves said. Although the Republican governor has expressed his support for sports and other extracurricular activities going forward this school year amid the pandemic, he said Friday that one of his greatest concerns heading into the fall has been managing crowds. “Let me just say this: Twenty-two players on a field is not going to overwhelm our local hospitals,” he said. “However, 2,000 people in a small school’s bleachers absolutely could have that effect.”

Missouri

Branson: Coronavirus infections increased at a higher rate in several rural counties over the past two weeks compared to the state’s major metropolitan areas. While many more people have been sickened by the virus in major metropolitan areas including St. Louis and Kansas City, the infection rate relative to population has spiked in some rural counties. Health department data shows the highest two-week increase in case rates per 100,000 people in Taney, Pettis, Cooper, New Madrid, Knox, Holt and Marion counties. At least 269 people have been sickened by the virus over the past two weeks in Taney County, home to the tourist destination of Branson. Cumulatively, state data show 685 have been sickened in the county, which borders Arkansas. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates about 56,000 people live in the county.

Montana

Helena: The ongoing dispute between Gov. Steve Bullock and the state’s schools chief deepened Thursday when Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen blasted Bullock for announcing a school mask requirement without consulting her. Arntzen is a Republican running for reelection in November, while Bullock, a Democrat, is running for U.S. Senate. “The Governor made a last-minute decision days before school begins and has once again left the Office of Public Instruction in the dark in his decision-making related to safely reopening schools,” Arntzen said in a statement Wednesday. However, the governor’s office maintains that it has included the superintendent in decision-making through weekly discussions with her and her staff. Marissa Perry, a spokesperson for the governor, said that when consulted, Arntzen refused to give guidance on mask usage in schools.

Nebraska

Plainview: The start of the school year has been delayed in the town after the public school superintendent tested positive for COVID-19. Superintendent Darron Arlt received his positive test results Wednesday, less than 24 hours before school was scheduled to start. The Board of Education held an emergency meeting that night and voted to delay the school year until Aug. 24, The Norfolk Daily News reports. Arlt said he was in several meetings with staff Monday and Tuesday, when he began feeling flu-like symptoms. He said he sat within 6 feet of five teachers at one point. The delay was partly to allow those teachers time to quarantine. About 50 other staff members were in the building at the time of the exposures, Arlt said. Shortly after the meeting Wednesday, families were notified and all staff were asked to leave while facilities were disinfected.

Nevada

Las Vegas: State officials said Friday that they are developing plans to lower the possibility of contracting the coronavirus in six high-risk counties that include the cities of Las Vegas and Reno. The action plans in the works for Clark, Washoe, Elko, Humboldt, Lander and Nye counties are part of Gov. Steve Sisolak’s new approach that shifts away from broad rules to control the coronavirus to a more tailored reaction based on county-specific data. It’s unclear what those new plans will call for or when they will take effect. The state’s COVID-19 response director, Caleb Cage, told reporters that county officials and members of the task force are still reviewing the plans and will meet Thursday to finalize them. The seven-day rolling average of the coronavirus testing positivity rate in Nevada was 13.3% as of Wednesday, according to the most recent state data available, well above a World Health Organization goal of 5%.

New Hampshire

Concord: A group of notables from the state has recorded public service announcements to get the word out to residents that they can vote absentee in the state primary and general election during the pandemic. Filmmaker Ken Burns, comedian Seth Meyers and Granite State Challenge host Jon Cannon put out messages. In another, Republican Judd Gregg, a former U.S. senator and governor, and Democrat John Lynch, another former governor, team up to encourage people to vote. “I am acutely aware of the benefits of coming from a state with high voter turnout, as I was elected treasurer of Manchester West High class of ’92, a job I conducted with such brazen incompetence that our faculty adviser suggested – or rather insisted – I go into comedy,” Meyers said in his message. The “NH Votes Safe” announcements emphasize that residents can visit the secretary of state office’s website to learn about getting an absentee ballot or register by mail.

New Jersey

Trenton: An association of defense attorneys is giving a thumbs-down to some of the state’s plans to restart criminal trials next month using a combination of remote and in-person proceedings. The state judiciary released guidelines last month that would allow live trials to resume in September at courthouses serving six of New Jersey’s 21 counties. Among the conditions are that jury selection would be mostly virtual. The judiciary’s guidelines released July 22 also raised the possibility of having to enforce social distancing during trials by having jurors in a different courtroom than attorneys and defendants, connected by a video feed. But a spokesman said Friday that the judiciary has determined that jurors won’t be in separate courtrooms for the limited number of trials expected. “We thought that was critical,” Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey president-elect Aidan O’Connor said Friday.

New Mexico

Carlsbad: Managers of the federal government’s underground nuclear waste repository in southern New Mexico say operations are ongoing despite a recent increase in COVID-19 cases among workers. The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant has seen cases among workers more than double in the past week. The plant last Monday announced four new cases among employees of Nuclear Waste Partnership, the contractor that oversees daily operations at the facility. In all, the plant has reported at least 14 positive cases among employees and subcontractors. The plant is in the second phase of resuming normal operations after having slowed the emplacement of waste this spring when the pandemic began, said spokesperson Bobby St. John. He said the first positive case reported at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant was in April, and since that time about 1% of the workforce has tested positive for COVID-19.

New York

Albany: New York City museums and aquariums, as well as bowling alleys across the state, are getting the green light to open again, while the state will soon release guidance for indoor gyms to reopen one day. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday that low-risk, indoor cultural activities – including museums – can open in New York City starting Aug. 24. The governor said those cultural institutions will face restrictions: 25% occupancy, timed ticketing, pre-set staggered entry and controlled traffic flow. And bowling alleys can reopen statewide starting Monday, as long as they stick to a 50% occupancy limit and establish disinfection protocols for shared and rented equipment. The governor said bowling alley staff must close every other lane and bring food and alcohol to customers. Cuomo also announced he’s sending mobile testing sites to rural farms ahead of the fall harvest in light of “several clusters” at farms.

North Carolina

Chapel Hill: Fraternity members living in off-campus student housing for the state’s flagship public university have tested positive for COVID-19, school officials announced Saturday. A cluster of cases, defined as five or more in close proximity, was reported at the Sigma Nu fraternity house, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said in an email. Those testing positive are being isolated and receiving medical monitoring. The cases marked the third reported cluster since the semester began last Monday amid heightened health concerns about the coronavirus. Students moved into dormitories and are receiving a mix of in-person and remote instruction. The other two clusters, announced Friday, were in an on-campus dormitory and at Granville Towers, which is private student housing. Contact tracing is happening in response to all three clusters. North Carolina’s K-12 school districts begin instruction Monday.

North Dakota

Bismarck: A local hospital has turned to a Mandan nursing home to help care for some coronavirus patients as cases continue to rise in the region. COVID-19 patients who have been discharged from Sanford Health but still need medical care will go to Sunset Drive Prospera Community in Mandan. The COVID-19 unit at Sunset will operate with separate entrances, designated staff and personal protective equipment. The facility will begin accepting patients early next week, according to a letter from a regional coronavirus task force. State health officials on Saturday reported that coronavirus-related hospitalizations stood at 55, down from 65 on Friday. A Sanford Health official said the hospital’s COVID-19 unit has adequate resources, the Bismarck Tribune reports. “Our COVID care unit is not full and we have no shortage of ventilators,” Dr. Danielle Thurtle, interim chief medical officer for Sanford, said in a statement.

Ohio

Columbus: State health officials say school districts will not be allowed to use face shields rather than facial coverings or masks in most cases as a means of curbing coronavirus transmission. The Ohio Department of Health on Saturday cited guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says there is currently not enough evidence to establish the effectiveness of face shields in preventing the virus’s spread. Ohio authorities are requiring masks or facial coverings for students, faculty and staff in places providing child care or education for children from kindergarten through 12th grade. Exemptions are included for people with medical conditions or for such activities as eating and drinking or playing at recess. The health department said Saturday that face shields may be an option for those exempted from the face covering requirement or in some circumstances, such as the need for lip reading.

Oklahoma

Okmulgee: The oldest continuously held Black rodeo in the U.S. rode on in eastern Oklahoma despite months of uncertainty because of the coronavirus pandemic, though this year some cowboys wore face masks along with boots. The 65th annual Roy LeBlanc Invitational Rodeo took place Aug. 7-8 in Okmulgee, about 90 miles east of Oklahoma City, with a crowd of about 1,000 and some 200 Black cowboys competing, according to co-owner Kenneth LeBlanc. Most at the event wore masks and practiced social distancing, LeBlanc said. “Fans and cowboys were calling, asking if we were going to have it,” LeBlanc said. “The cowboys, they were looking for somewhere to go.” Cowboys came from as far away as North Carolina, Indiana and California, LeBlanc said. Fans from Nebraska and Arizona made the trek.

Oregon

Salem: The state’s total confirmed coronavirus case count since the start of the pandemic surpassed 22,600 Friday, Malheur County was sent back to Phase 1, and Gov. Kate Brown expanded mask requirements to office spaces. The new face covering guidance requires masks in office building hallways, bathrooms, elevators, lobbies, break rooms and other common spaces, unless employees are at individual workspaces or in meeting rooms where 6 feet of distance from other people can be maintained. The new requirement follows a list of COVID-19 safety restrictions and requirements implemented by the governor over the past two months. Health officials in the past two weeks have said these mandates have helped to slow the spread. The percentage of positive tests in the state has decreased to 5.4%, but not everywhere is seeing cases plateau. Over the past two weeks, Malheur County has had a test positivity rate of 26%.

Pennsylvania

Lebanon: A county that has tangled with Gov. Tom Wolf over his pandemic restrictions agreed Friday to spend $2.8 million on a universal mask-wearing campaign. Lebanon County said it will promote mask-wearing by its residents as part of a legal settlement in which Wolf agreed to release $12.8 million in federal coronavirus relief aid. Wolf had blocked Lebanon from receiving the money after its elected leaders defied his pandemic shutdown orders and sought to reopen the local economy on their own. Lebanon filed suit last month in an effort to compel Wolf to release the funding. Lebanon County Rep. Russ Diamond, a Republican who has stoked opposition to Wolf’s pandemic shutdowns and spoken out against masks, excoriated the settlement. “No matter how sweet you think your deal with the devil is, you will eventually end up in hell,” Diamond wrote on Facebook.

Rhode Island

Providence: Officials on Block Island have suspended all outdoor entertainment until the end of summer as Gov. Gina Raimondo has singled out the popular vacation destination as “not doing well” amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Providence Journal reports the Block Island Town Council voted 3-1 on Wednesday night to pull all outdoor entertainment licenses, over the objections of a number of residents and business owners. The order takes effect immediately but doesn’t affect weddings, according to The Block Island Times. Raimondo last week suggested island officials might have to take further action to control possible spread of the virus after photos of packed ferries to the island were widely shared on social media. The island has reported fewer than 10 cases of COVID-19, according to the Times.

South Carolina

Columbia: The city is considering imposing a nightly curfew to slow the spread of COVID-19 as college students return to the capital for the upcoming school year. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control on Saturday announced 986 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 51 additional confirmed deaths, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 104,874 and deaths to 2,156. The new curfew is on the agenda for the City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, The State newspaper reports. A previous nightly curfew expired two months ago. Thousands of students are expected to pour into Columbia over the next few days as students return to the University of South Carolina. City leaders fear that some of them might not take necessary precautions to avoid spreading the coronavirus.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: The state reported two more deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, along with 94 new cases. Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases has increased by about 13, an increase of 16%. The Department of Health has also warned of possible COVID-19 exposure at several businesses across the state, including at the Sioux Empire Fair. Officials have said they expect to see an increase in infections as people gather for activities. But as large gatherings like concerts and motorcycle rallies go forward, the Department of Health issued a series of alerts Friday that people may have been exposed to the coronavirus at three locations across the state: Bumpin’ Buffalo Bar and Grill in Hill City, 9 Bar and Nightclub in Brookings, and a Big and Rich concert in Sioux Falls.

Tennessee

Nashville: Gov. Bill Lee on Friday announced $168 million more in COVID-19 relief for small businesses, agriculture, tourism and workforce development through federal coronavirus relief funding. The Republican’s office said $83.5 million will help expand on the initial $200 million offered through the state to affected small businesses, including expanding the types of eligible businesses. The businesses seeking the aid must have less than $10 million in annual gross sales. Another $50 million will fuel an economic support program to help ensure stability of the food supply chain and agribusiness economy. A $25 million tourism re-marketing effort will aid the industry’s recovery from the pandemic. And $9.5 million will help about 17,000 people through existing programs for reemployment services.

Texas

San Antonio: Anyone can get a coronavirus test at the CentroMed clinic in the city, but on a recent day, the drive-thru was empty. With hundreds of deaths reported each day, students returning to class and football teams charging ahead with plans to play, Texas leaders who grappled with testing shortages for much of the pandemic are now facing the opposite problem: not enough takers. “We’re not having enough people step forward,” Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said. The number of coronavirus tests being done each day in Texas has dropped by the thousands in August, mirroring nationwide trends, according to the COVID Tracking Project. That worries health experts who fear Texas risks flying blind into the fall if it doesn’t increase testing. Texas embarked on one of the fastest reopenings in the U.S. in May but retreated weeks later in the face of massive outbreaks, ultimately leading Abbott to impose a statewide mask order after previously saying he wouldn’t.

Utah

Salt Lake City: Sen. Mitt Romney said Friday that politicians attacking the vote-by-mail system are threatening global democracy but stopped short of criticizing President Donald Trump, who has been openly against an expected surge of mail-in ballots. The United States must stand as an example to more fragile democratic nations to show that elections can be held in a free and fair manner, Romney said. He urged the federal government to make every effort to ensure that people are able to vote in the general election this November. “That’s more important even than the outcome of the vote,” he said at a virtual event hosted by the conservative Utah-based Sutherland Institute. Trump has suggested that increased mail-in voting because of the coronavirus pandemic could result in fraud and cost him reelection. Last week he acknowledged he’s starving the U.S. Postal Service of money to make it harder to process the expected flood of ballots.

Vermont

Montpelier: Gov. Phil Scott on Friday extended Vermont’s State of Emergency during the coronavirus pandemic for another month, allowing cities and towns with colleges the ability to lower the limits on gatherings and hours to sell alcohol. Scott said those actions mean that “they could set a curfew for bars and clubs.” “Looking at case growth in other states and hearing from other governors about what they saw, it appears uncontrolled parties and crowds at bars and clubs are a big part of the problem,” Scott said. He said as of Friday, Vermont has the lowest number of COVID-19 cases per capita in the country. It also has the lowest total case count in the U.S. A slight increase is expected in the next few weeks as college students return to the state. Health Commissioner Mark Levin said testing has already begun for students “at entry,” with many hundreds of results so far.

Virginia

Richmond: Gov. Ralph Northam is looking to block evictions until next spring, boost spending on high-speed internet access for students learning virtually and set aside $1 million for the safe removal of a towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The Northam administration released details Friday of the governor’s priorities for this week’s special session, at which lawmakers will take up the state’s budget while addressing criminal justice issues and other matters. Northam’s office said Friday that it is predicting $2.7 billion in lost revenues over the next two years because of the coronavirus pandemic. Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne said the virus’s hit to state finances could have been much worse, and Virginia is better situated, thanks to federal and defense spending, than other states.

Washington

Vancouver: A long-term care facility in southwest Washington has recorded 40 COVID-19 cases. The outbreak at Avamere Rehabilitation of Cascade Park in east Vancouver is Clark County’s largest at a long-term care facility since the county’s first COVID-19 case was discovered in March, The Columbian reports. Clark County Public Health confirmed the outbreak Thursday afternoon. A COVID-19 dashboard on Avamere’s website said 18 residents and 22 staff at the skilled-nursing facility had tested positive for the virus as of Thursday afternoon. So far, no deaths have been linked to the outbreak. In late April, Highgate Senior Living in Hazel Dell, Washington, recorded the county’s largest care facility outbreak at that time. There were 26 confirmed cases and seven deaths linked to Highgate.

West Virginia

White Sulphur Springs: Vice President Mike Pence visited Gov. Jim Justice’s resort, The Greenbrier, on Saturday to congratulate the fellow Republican on his response to the coronavirus. Pence pledged to make sure West Virginia continues to have the resources it needs “not just to protect the vulnerable and save lives but to continue to open up your economy.” He said that “West Virginia has been going back to work, and very soon West Virginia will be going back to school.” Pence stressed that both he and President Donald Trump believe the U.S. must open up its public schools and congratulated Justice on his work to make that happen. On Friday, Justice rolled out a color-coded map to show residents of each county whether in-class education would be considered safe in their community. It is based on a rolling seven-day average of new virus cases, adjusted per 100,000 people. No schools are allowed to reopen until Sept. 8.

Wisconsin

Madison: The body that governs high school sports in the state approved a major overhaul Friday to season structures heading into the new school year, including lengthening games and extending seasons beyond state championship tournaments. The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association said the changes are designed to give athletes the best chance to play as the coronavirus threatens to scuttle competition. The plan allows for a fifth quarter in football games and extra innings in baseball and softball to allow reserves a chance to get on the field. Teams eliminated from postseason tournaments would be allowed to schedule additional games until the school season officially ends. In the past, tournament elimination meant the end of a team’s season. “We want schools to schedule where and when they can, every chance they get.” WIAA Executive Director Dave Anderson said. “We want to find a way to give a kid a chance.”

Wyoming

Laramie: The University of Wyoming approved a revised reopening plan less than two weeks before classes are due to resume. When the semester starts Aug. 24, all courses will be online, officials said. Students who are not on campus will be encouraged not to come. About 1,500 students are now on campus, mostly freshmen. Some students will return Sept. 7, including first-generation college students and students with lab requirements that cannot be done from home. Students will return to campus for in-person classes by Sept. 28. Then courses will move exclusively online Nov. 23, which marks the start of Thanksgiving break, and will remain so through the end of the semester. Every student and employee will be required to take free coronavirus tests before returning to campus. The university is also developing a program that will require employees and students to be tested twice a week during the semester.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Black rodeo, Seth Meyers: News from around our 50 states