Another week of Wednesday Morning Reads, another week where I’ve chosen a week instead of a day for our observance. This week is International Heritage Breeds Week, which is largely coordinated by the Livestock Conservancy. The Livestock Conservancy’s mission is to save the traditional breeds of livestock that have gone out of fashion in today’s mass market society. They’ve been pretty successful, particularly with small farms, homesteads, and suburbanites with backyard chickens and/or rabbits, and of course they are. Some of these animals are really interesting! Anyway, if you’re looking to pick up a couple of chickens for your yard or thinking about starting a small farm of your own, consider a heritage breed and help save them from extinction.
Let’s get on to the news.
Pat Conroy
- Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is running for reelection. (Alternate link.)
- The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating Gwinnett County Sheriff Keybo Taylor regarding a possible extortion attempt. (Alternate link.)
- The Public Service Commission will decide in November how much of the ballooning overage tab from the new Plant Vogtle reactors customers will be forced to pick up.
- Think the Water Wars with Florida and Alabama are over? Not by a long shot.
- The Environmental Protection Agency is still investigating lead contamination in west Atlanta.
- Senator Raphael Warnock has asked the Federal Aviation Administration to reconsider its environmental impact assessment of Spaceport Camden.
- State legislators may soon see their pensions increase. (Alternate link.)
- Over a third of Georgia gas stations still don’t have gas after last week’s unnecessary panic.
- MotherJones has done a deep dive into the two Georgia women who first rose to fame at the inception of the Tea Party movement and continue to impact conservative politics today.
Alice Walker
- The United States will no longer deny citizenship to those born overseas via in-vitro fertilization, surrogacy and by other assisted reproductive means, so long as the parents are married and one is a U.S. citizen.
- The Department of Homeland Security has eased asylum restrictions, exempting about 250 people a day from automatic deportation.
- The states with the lowest COVID vaccination rates are seeing an uptick of cases, including Georgia. Please get vaccinated!
- Andrew Brown Jr.’s family as asked that the Department of Justice intervene after a North Carolina district attorney declared the shooting “justified.”
- Unsurprisingly, abortion access would decline most in the southeast and midwest if Roe v. Wade is overturned. (Alternate link.)
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing a defense contractor’s contributions to Senator Susan Collins. (Alternate link.)
- Kevin McCarthy continues to be the most inept Republican House leader in the past 40 years (at least).
- The New York Attorney General’s investigation into the Trump Organization is now a criminal probe. (Alternate link.)
- The U.S. helped prevent an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
- The European Union is set to reopen for visitors who are fully vaccinated and those from “COVID-safe” countries. (Alternate link.)
- India has set a grim global record for daily COVID deaths.
- The AP has an explaining Spain’s current migrant crisis in North Africa.
Flannery O’Connor
- Next month, we may get some insight into how federal agencies respond internally to reports of UFOs.