National Roundup

Arkansas
Lt. Gov. Griffin drops Arkansas governor bid, to run for AG
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin on Monday dropped out of the race for governor and will instead run for attorney general.

Griffin announced he was switching two weeks after former White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders  said she was seeking the GOP nomination for governor.

“We need an attorney general who will back law enforcement, stand for law and order by cracking down on crime and corruption, and fight the liberal agenda of the Biden/Harris administration in court,” Griffin said in a statement released by his campaign.

His decision was first announced Monday morning by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Griffin, a former congressman, was the first candidate to announce a bid  to succeed Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson and had raised more than $1.8 million since March.

But the race for the GOP nomination had become overshadowed by Sanders, who is running with former President Donald Trump’s endorsement and who had raised more than $1 million in the first four days of her candidacy.

Griffin’s announcement leaves Attorney General Leslie Rutledge as Sanders’ only rival for the nomination in the 2022 election, though state Sen. Jim Hendren is considering running.

He had focused his campaign primarily on a vow to eliminate the state’s income tax.

Missouri
Family of woman who drank sanitizer sues firm that made it
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The family of an Illinois woman who died last year after drinking hand sanitizer contaminated with methanol is suing the company that made the product.

The federal lawsuit filed Friday in St. Louis says the St. Louis County Medical examiner determined that Kayla Stagner’s death was caused by acute methanol intoxication, and a bottle of Blumen Advanced Instate Sanitizer that was tested in connection with the autopsy contained dangerous levels of methanol. Stagner died last May at a St. Louis area hospital.

The lawsuit said Stagner, who was an alcoholic, is believed to have drank the Blumen hand sanitizer, which was recalled last year after officials determined that it contained methanol. Significant methanol exposure can cause nausea, vomiting, blindness and death, particularly if it is ingested.

Officials at 4e Brands Northamerica, which made the sanitizer, didn’t respond immediately  to questions about the lawsuit from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Stagner, 32, who lived in Jersey County, Illinois, was born in St. Louis. She was working as a preschool teacher at the time of her death.

Indiana
Lawmakers act quickly on COVID-19 lawsuit shield
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana legislators are poised to finalize a fast-tracked proposal that will give a broad shield protecting businesses and others from lawsuits by people blaming them for contracting COVID-19.

The proposal is a top priority of Republican legislative leaders and GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb even though supporters don’t point to any such lawsuits in the state.

Supporters maintain that the liability protection is needed to remove a “cloud of uncertainty” for factories, restaurants, stores and other institutions like universities so that they can stay open without facing lawsuits from employees or customers over possible coronavirus exposure.

Republicans who dominate the Indiana House and Senate have already approved similar versions of the liability protections and a final bill could reach Holcomb’s desk within the next couple weeks and months before final action is taken on most of this year’s legislation.

The proposal would be retroactive to March 1, 2020 — just before the first coronavirus infection was confirmed in Indiana — and only allow lawsuits against businesses when “gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct” can be proved with “clear and convincing evidence.”

Republicans call the protections a key step toward economic recovery  from the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down some businesses for months and the state health department says has killed nearly 12,000 people in the state.

“It’s critical for supporting jobs and bringing back our economy throughout the state,” Republican House Speaker Todd Huston said.

Congressional Republicans have pushed for a national legal shield, but it has stalled amid opposition from Democrats. Businesses across the country have raised lawsuit fears, with similar protections approved last year in some states, such as Georgia, Iowa and Tennessee, while lawmakers in Alabama, Montana, North Dakota and other states are working to adopt them this year.

Warren Mathies, a lobbyist for the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, urged lawmakers this past week to make sure the liability protections didn’t apply to medical errors that weren’t related to COVID-19 and to recognize how difficult it would be for someone to ever prove they contracted the coronavirus at a specific business or workplace.

“You have to show a direct causal link to the exposure and that’s an impossibility,” Mathies said. “So that’s why our members are OK with clarifying that if you go to a restaurant you shouldn’t sue for COVID.”

Major business organizations, including the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and the state manufacturers and restaurant associations, support the proposal. Opposition has come from those worried nursing homes could escape responsibility for patient deaths stemming from neglect or other misconduct.

Questions about whether to shield nursing homes and other medical providers from lawsuits will be addressed in a separate bill that will go before legislators later during this year’s session, said Senate Majority Leader Mark Messmer, a Republican from Jasper.

Most Democratic legislators have so far voted against the shield proposals.

Democratic Rep. Ryan Hatfield of Evansville said he supported the concept of broad legal protections, especially for small businesses, because of the difficult decisions they have faced during the pandemic. But he said the current protections are too broad.

“I believe that there will be Hoosiers harmed by this legislation that were harmed in a way that has nothing to do with COVID-19,” Hatfield said.

Messmer, the proposal’s lead sponsor, said businesses still needed to follow safety protocols to protect their employees and customers.

“We are in a litigious society, whether you think we are or not,” Messmer said. “And just because there are no lawsuits filed to date doesn’t mean that there won’t be lawsuits just around the corner.”