Alaska Airlines has banned an Alaska state senator from its flights for refusing to follow mask requirements.

Alaska Senate Secretary Liz Clark, right, holds a copy of the Alaska Legislature's uniform rules as she talks to Sen. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River, center, while Senate President Peter Micciche, R-Soldotna and Senate Majority Leader Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, in the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, Alaska, Wednesday, March 10, 2021. Reinbold was excluded from most spaces in the Alaska State Capitol until she follows the Legislature's anti-COVID policies. Senate Rules Chair Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, said Reinbold also is not following testing protocols or submitting to temperature checks and questions that are standard for admittance to the building. “And we have a zero tolerance at this point for anyone unwilling to observe those rules,” said Micciche, a Soldotna Republican. Micciche said Reinbold remained chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a member of the Republican-led majority.

Founder of a group called Let Them Play, McElvany questioned mask mandates and the science behind state COVID-19 data during a legislative hearing that didn't feature any witnesses from the other side. The committee chairman, Republican Rep. Steven Johnson, said the state health department was invited to testify but did not. In Tennessee, a Republican lawmaker is pushing legislation that would ban most government agencies from requiring anyone to get COVID-19 vaccines, which isn't a mandate anywhere. “Some call ‘misinformation’ information they do not agree with or do not want to hear,” Reinbold said by email. Several of those who are spreading bogus virus information in legislatures also have supported Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

On Wednesday, Floridas numbers reflected that upward trend in infections. The state reported 1,371 new cases of the coronavirus Wednesday including 36 deaths attributed to the virus. Florida reported 160 new hospitalizations on Wednesday. The economic fallout from coronavirus closures continues to come into focus more than two months after Florida first began its stay-at-home order. To keep up with the latest news on the pandemic, subscribe to News 6s coronavirus newsletter or go to ClickOrlando.com/coronavirus.

The nation's ongoing battle against the coronavirus is dividing lawmakers along partisan lines in state Capitols. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.To the issues creating a partisan divide in state legislatures across the U.S., add this one: masks. Democrats demanded changes requiring lawmakers to wear masks in the Republican-controlled legislature, but GOP legislative leaders have not acted on the request. Lawmakers sat packed together at desks and few Republicans wore masks, though numerous Democrats still did. Republican House Speaker Elijah Haahr noted that lawmakers' temperatures were checked as they entered the Capitol.