Mid-Morning Reads for National Princess Day (November 18)

Good morning, everyone! Today is National Princess Day for children to have a special day set aside to dress up like princesses. This was everyday when I was little so I don’t know why you needed an official day, but nonetheless, you have it. Also, a very happy 92nd birthday to Mickey and Minnie Mouse!

If today doesn’t bring out the kid in y’all, I have no idea what will. Let’s get on to the news (even if some of us might rather stay in Fantasyland for the day at this point!).

Pat Conroy

• With a couple of exceptions, the manual recount will not be the official vote tally in the presidential race, per the Secretary of State’s Office. (Alternate link.)
• The White House Coronavirus Task Force warns that the spread in Georgia is “aggressive, unrelenting, expanding.” Be careful, folks!
• Fayette County election workers found a memory card that was not previously uploaded, which brings President-elect Joe Biden’s lead to 12,929 votes.
• Macon-Bibb County Commission passed a nondiscrimination ordinance last night on a 5-4 vote, prohibiting discrimination based on race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity or military status in employment, housing and public accommodations.
• Augusta’s Crimes Against Vulnerable and Elderly (CAVE) task force has shut down a second elderly care home owned by the same couple who operated a home where two residents were found dead last month.
• The Georgia Water Coalition has released its annual “Dirty Dozen” list.

Alice Walker

• Pfizer’s vaccine – the first to produce a set of complete results from a late-stage vaccine trial – is 95% effective with no side effects. They plan to seek the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval “within days.” (Alternate link.)
• Chris Krebs, the head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, was fired by President Donald Trump on Tuesday via Twitter because Krebs disputed Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud in the general election.
• A federal judge approved a $8.3 billion settlement between the Department of Justice and Perdue Pharma for their decades-long manufacture and marketing of Oxycontin and other opioids.
  • The company will plead to three felony counts of criminal wrongdoing and will likely be reorganized into a public benefit corporation, with profits from future opioid sales expected to fund programs aimed at alleviating the addiction crisis.
• The Trump Administration has announced troop withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iraq within the next two months. (Alternate link.)
• The Federal Aviation Administration has lifted its ban on the Boeing 737 Max jets.

Flannery O’Connor

• The Trump Administration has canceled a celebrity COVID-19 ad campaign aimed at “defeating despair.”