An Arkansas man awaiting trial for murder has won the Republican nomination in a sheriff’s race in central Arkansas.

More than half the states have issued orders to wear masks in most public settings, with virus cases and hospitalizations on the rise. In New York City, which was at the heart of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak early on in the pandemic, the nation's largest police department has struggled with how to enforce mask mandates. Police initially assigned 1,000 officers this spring to enforce mask wearing and social distancing rules, but they backed off after some violent arrests were caught on video. Not all police departments are resistant to enforcing mask mandates, though they're hoping to avoid the need to write anyone up for not complying. Supporters of mask mandates say penalties were never their goal and that they never envisioned police having to respond to every complaint about someone not wearing one.