Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signs bill letting parents opt kids out of school mask mandates
ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday signed legislation that allows parents who don’t want their children wearing masks to opt out of any school district mandates.
The new law comes more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic. Most Georgia schools have dropped mask mandates due to declining infection rates and relaxed guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This will ensure that parents have the final say when it comes to the health and well-being of their child,” Kemp said before signing the bill. “It is a common sense measure that puts parents in charge — not the government.”
The law takes effect immediately through June 2027. The Georgia Department of Public Health has said the governor could suspend it in a state of emergency.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘Revered and feared’: Don Young lies in state at the Capitol
WASHINGTON — It was freezing out the morning Don Young, the dean of the House, returned to the Capitol one last time.
As much as it was unseasonably cold for Washington on Tuesday, it was fitting for Young, a California native who made his home in tiny Fort Yukon, located seven miles above the Arctic Circle. And Young himself could be bitingly frosty with his colleagues at times, though he was better known for his passion.
“Donald Edwin Young was larger than life, both bellicose and beloved, revered and feared,” House Chaplain Margaret Kibben said in her eulogy for the Republican, who died March 18 at age 88.
Members of Young’s family greeted his casket at the top of the House stairs, then entered Statuary Hall to take their seats in the first row. Young’s widow, Anne Walton, sat the closest, her right hand over her heart.
“Alaska’s third senator” was remembered by the Last Frontier’s other two, Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski. Both shared stories of Young’s colorful personality.
—CQ-Roll Call
Baltimore reaches $3.5 million settlement with business owners over damages from Freddie Gray unrest
BALTIMORE — The city of Baltimore has reached a $3.5 million settlement with dozens of business owners whose property was damaged in the unrest following the death of Freddie Gray, ending a five-year legal saga.
Nearly 70 people, mostly business owners, sued the city in 2017 claiming officials failed to prevent the unrest that erupted after the arrest and death of Gray in April 2015, despite warnings the city would experience violence. Gray died from injuries he suffered in police custody.
More than 380 businesses, including many located south of North Avenue in West Baltimore, were damaged or destroyed. Property losses were estimated at nearly $13 million.
The settlement was agreed to Feb. 17 and is half of the documented economic losses business owners were seeking, according to the City Solicitor’s Office.
—The Baltimore Sun
Third of Ukraine refugees in Poland to find jobs this year
About a third of the estimated 2 million Ukrainians fleeing the war to Poland will be able to start work by the summer, easing a labor shortage in the European Union’s largest eastern economy, a survey of companies showed.
Poland, along with other countries in the bloc’s east, has long reported a high number of job vacancies as younger Poles emigrate to better paying jobs elsewhere. With about 200,000 currently unfilled positions, Polish unemployment dropped to 2.9% in the first quarter of this year, the EU’s second-lowest after the Czech Republic.
Among the 300 companies surveyed by Personnel Service last month, a third of them already employ Ukrainians, and another quarter plan to. The majority of those looking to hire or already working with Ukrainians are from the hospitality sector.
“Russia’s attack on Ukraine is changing the situation on the labor market, which early this year put a brake on our economic expansion,” said Krzysztof Inglot, a founder of Personnel Service, a recruitment agency.
—Bloomberg News
