Tuesday Wrap: Mask debate, school restart concerns, bowling alley win

The House and the Senate remain divided over whether to extend the exemption to a state law against wearing masks in public past an Aug. 1 deadline so people can continue covering their faces during the coronavirus pandemic.

There's also some concern over a proposal backed by the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association that would allow businesses to meet their obligation to enforce Gov. Roy Cooper's statewide mask requirement simply by posting a sign in their front windows.

Lawmakers also are split on whether to give school districts the flexibility to start off the new school year with remote learning. Many are implementing plans to rotate groups of students through both in-person and remote instruction to limit the number of students at school at a given time, but state law currently says no remote learning is allowed during the first week of class.

The differences between the two chambers likely led to Cooper vetoing a bill late Monday simply to do away with a controversial provision that would have kept some details of death investigations confidential. House members were working on a measure to repeal that language, but there was no guarantee the new bill would have cleared the legislature, so Cooper nixed the original bill.

By doing so, he also quashed a number of other changes his state Department of Health and Human Services wanted, and it's unclear whether lawmakers will clean that up with new legislation.

The House and the Senate are scheduled to take up various veto override votes on Wednesday, including four bills that would have reopened various businesses despite Cooper's pandemic-related shutdown orders. But bowling alleys don't need legislative support after a judge ruled Tuesday in their favor, saying there was no reason bowling alleys couldn't operate under the same rules that restaurants and other businesses have been using for weeks.