Mid-day Reads for Public Service Day (June 23)

Good morning/afternoon! It’s Public Service Day, so I want to say thank you to all reading who either serve our communities or have in the past! I’m hopeful that we’ll come around as a nation to once again understand public service as a positive thing. After all, government is us — of us, by us, and for us. Until that time, thank you again to those in public service for making our ship run everyday.

Let’s get on to the news.

Pat Conroy

• Four Georgia residents are suing the Georgia Department of Labor over delays in processing unemployment assistance.
• Senator Raphael Warnock has introduced the Preventing Election Subversion Act of 2021, which would prohibit state takeovers of local elections boards, like the new voting legislation in Georgia allows.
• Governor Brian Kemp has appointed his former deputy chief of staff for operations, Caylee Noggle, as the new head of the Department of Community Health.
• The business group suing Major League Baseball over moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta has dropped its lawsuit.
• Former President Donald Trump’s team is still looking for a challenger to run against the governor. (Alternate link.)

Alice Walker

• The Supreme Court has rejected the use of warrantless entry for minor crimes.
• Senate Republicans have blocked consideration of the Democrats’ voter rights legislation.
• An alleged Oath Keeper will plead guilty to charges related to the January 6th insurrection.
• Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin supports removing sexual assault investigations from the chain of command and moving them to independent military lawyers.
• Jim Bakker and his church will pay $156,000 to settle a lawsuit stemming from Bakker claiming a particular supplement could cure COVID.
• Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy newspaper has been forced to shut down.
• Russia either did or didn’t fire shots at a British destroyer in the Black Sea.
• The European Union is set to take steps against Hungary over the country’s new anti-LGBTQ law.

Flannery O’Connor

• Bears have invaded the Atlanta suburbs. (Alternate link.)