Like seemingly everything else in America, the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked its fair share of bitter, polarizing debates: over masks, over distancing, over vaccines.

Lockdowns are no exception. One assumption many Americans seem to make is that the more a government limits gatherings, mandates masks, restricts business activity and advises residents to stay at home, the more economic damage it will do.

Among the loudest of these voices is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who raised his national profile by allowing bars and restaurants to operate at full indoor capacity during America’s horrific holiday surge, then effectively banned mask mandates once Florida started to recover — all in the name of supporting business.

“She’s a lockdown lobbyist,” DeSantis recently said in reference to Democrat Nikki Fried, one of his 2022 gubernatorial opponents. Speaking at a New Smyrna Beach restaurant, DeSantis said Fried “would have had this business shuttered for the whole year. They would be out of business if Fried were governor.”

Yet for much of the past year, some experts have quietly advanced a counterargument: that economic activity is mainly affected by the rising and falling severity of the pandemic itself — not the relative strictness of the measures implemented to mitigate it. In fact, these experts argued, nonpharmaceutical interventions, or NPIs — a set of 20 government responses such as business closures, mask mandates and stay-at-home advisories that Oxford University rates according to stringency — can have an economic upside. The more the virus seems to be under control, the more eager people will be to participate in the economy.

Last week, this argument got a boost with the publication of a new report by economists at the University of California, Los Angeles. According to the latest quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast, not only did big states with more stringent COVID measures end 2020 with fewer infections per capita, they also tended to post better economic growth numbers last year than states with fewer restrictions.

The Senate voted to advance what Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the "first of many" judicial nominations.

WASHINGTON — The Senate is set to approve President Joe Biden's first judicial nominees this week, marking the start of an ambitious push to make an impact on the federal courts.

The Senate advanced the nomination of Julien Xavier Neals to be a district judge in New Jersey by a vote of 66-28 on Monday, setting up a final confirmation vote Tuesday.

Next up on Tuesday is Regina M. Rodriguez to be a district judge in Colorado.

The two were advanced in committee last month, along with three other nominees, including Ketanji Brown Jackson for the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The Biden administration threatened Monday to pursue legal action if Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doesn't rescind his order shutting down federally funded shelters that house migrant children who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without their parents.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told the Republican governor that even though the state issues the licenses for the shelter, Congress has tasked his agency with caring for unaccompanied children.

He warned Abbott not to interfere with those operations and said HHS intends to pursue legal action if the state proceeds to close the shelters down.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings announced Monday that it plans to resume cruising from Miami in August with fully vaccinated passengers, a plan that threatens to defy orders of Gov. Ron DeSantis and creates yet more uncertainty about one of South Florida’s most important tourist draws.

The cruise line’s announcement offered no indication that DeSantis has agreed to exempt cruise lines from his edict banning businesses from requiring vaccines, nor did it suggest that any sort of compromise had been reached between Norwegian and the governor.

Instead, it creates confusion about plans of cruise lines that in recent days have announced diverging strategies for resuming operations — with some planning test voyages, some requiring vaccines and some welcoming people on board with masks and social distancing.

Cruise fans and local workers are left wondering when the industry will get back on track in Florida.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers made it official Saturday, announcing his bid for a second term in the battleground state where he stands as a Democratic check on the Republican-controlled state Legislature.

Evers, 69, told The Associated Press in a Friday interview that he decided to run again because he has unfinished business and needs to remain able to stop Republicans through his veto powers, especially as they advocate for election law changes that would make it harder to vote absentee.

“Even though I haven’t played much hockey, I have come to appreciate the role of being a goalie,” Evers told the AP.

Evers announced his plans during the Wisconsin Democratic Convention, which was held virtually Saturday for a second year in a row.

“We have lots of work to do that the people of Wisconsin expect us to work on,” Evers told the AP, citing Medicaid expansion, criminal justice reform, expanding education funding and creating an independent redistricting process.

Broward County leaders want to make sure a Republican governor never takes control of the county by appointing the county mayor.

A proposal to let voters decide whether to elect the mayor now includes a provision dictating that if the seat is empty — whether the mayor dies or leaves office — the governor could not appoint a replacement. That power would rest with the vice mayor, and voters would choose a new mayor in the next general election.

The provision is important because the Democratic Party controls most offices in Broward County. Without the restriction, a Republican governor could take over one of the county’s highest offices.

In early April, the progressive group Demand Justice ordered a billboard truck to be driven around the Supreme Court building featuring the words “Breyer, retire.” The message was directed at 82-year-old Justice Stephen Breyer, one of three remaining Democratic appointees on a court that has become increasingly dominated by conservative justices in recent years.

Breyer was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1994. During his time on the bench, Breyer has been a consistent defender of liberal priorities in cases involving abortion, marriage equality, voting rights and other issues. There’s growing urgency on the left, however, to see Breyer step down from the court so he can be replaced by another liberal justice while Democrats are the majority party in Washington.

Much of that anxiety is informed by recent history. Liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not retire when Democrats controlled the Senate during the Obama administration, and she died from cancer at age 87 shortly before the 2020 presidential race. Republicans moved swiftly to fill her seat with Amy Coney Barrett, which cemented a 6-3 conservative majority on the court that legal experts say may soon undo many rulings that defined Ginsburg’s judicial career.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden called out two fellow Democrats on Tuesday in explaining why he hasn’t enacted some of the most ambitious elements of his agenda, noting that slim majorities in the House and evenly divided Senate have hamstrung legislative negotiations around key issues like voting rights.

Biden, speaking during an event marking the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, responded to critics who question why he hasn’t been able to get a wide-reaching voting rights bill passed.

“Well, because Biden only has a majority of effectively four votes in the House, and a tie in the Senate — with two members of the Senate who voted more with my Republican friends,” he lamented.