Mid-Morning Reads for Global Running Day (June 3)

Good morning-ish! I’ve gotten to the point where all of my days are running together, and even notices in my calendar can’t save me. On the up side, it’s Global Running Day, which is a grand excuse to get outside.

In the news:

Pat Conroy

• While we know 1,000 Georgians who live in senior care centers have died of COVID-19 since the beginning of the outbreak, the total could be much higher when additional locations are added in.
• More than 50 people were arrested in Atlanta protests over the death of George Floyd overnight.
• The GBI believes some of the violence and looting is coming from organized groups infiltrating the protests.
• The sheriff of Grady County is facing blowback from a social media post condoning hanging traitors.

Alice Walker

• Protests across the country are entering their eighth day – and are mostly peaceful.
• Police reform is unlikely out of the current Congress.
• 40% of jobs lost to COVID-19 are probably not coming back.
• The director of the NIH says warm weather is not going to slow COVID-19 down.
• Trying to draw a stark contrast between himself and President Trump, Joe Biden is on an “empathy offensive.”
• Trump claims Governor Roy Cooper is forcing him to move the GOP convention out of North Carolina.

Flannery O’Connor

• Dr. Peter Coclanis, director of the Global Research Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill, has a long, yet fascinating post up about the economic “pricks and kicks” of the South’s regional economy from 1860-present.