Morning Reads for Asteroid Day (June 30)

Good morning! It’s Asteroid Day, which is to raise awareness of potential asteroid impacts, and coincidentally, we have an asteroid zooming past Earth this week. See, there’s a reason I highlight these days and weeks for y’all. One of these days, it could be life changing!

But, without further ado, let’s get to the news… because there’s a lot.

Pat Conroy

• The Washington Post released a story on former Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue yesterday afternoon detailing a 2017 land deal that’s raising some eyebrows. (Alternate link.)
• A grand jury in Screven County has declined to indict a former Georgia state trooper who shot and killed a Black man last year during a traffic stop over a broken taillight. (Alternate link.)
• The U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to return our ghastly statue of Alexander Stephens to us so that we can send them a far better representation of our state.
• When the federal government ordered states to inspect the facilities for measures that would curtail spread of infection at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, state health officials couldn’t be bothered to comply. (Alternate link.)
• State health officials are asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to delay implementation of our state-specific limited Medicaid expansion, too.
• Texas resident Herschel Walker will run for U.S. Senate in Georgia, facing a real Georgian, Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black, in the Republican primary. (Alternate link.)
• State Senator Tyler Harper will run for the seat Gary Black is vacating.

Alice Walker

• More bodies were recovered from the Florida condo collapse site overnight, and crews will continue searching today.
• The Supreme Court has narrowly decided to keep the CDC’s eviction moratorium in place.
• The Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg, expect to be charged with tax-related crimes tomorrow. (Alternate link.)
• Extremist group The Proud Boys will be running candidates for local offices across the country.
• 135,000 test ballots were accidentally counted in the New York City’s mayoral race. (Alternate link.)
• South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem will deploy National Guard troops to the Texas border on a mission best described as a political stunt funded by an out-of-state GOP megadonor. (Alternate link.)
• The heatwave affecting much of Oregon and Washington in the U.S. has killed more than 130 people in Canada, which recorded its highest-ever temperature for the third day in a row (121°F). Five Americans have also died.
• China’s Hong Kong security law is a year old, and it has greatly diminished freedoms in the city.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided that the U.S. put the U.K. up to last week’s “Black Sea provocation.”
• Beginning August 20th, Abu Dhabi will restrict some public spaces to only those individuals who have been vaccinated against COVID.
• In some welcome news, an Oxford University study has found that mixing doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccines can create a strong immune response to the virus.

Flannery O’Connor

• For the first time, astronomers have detected two separate instances of black holes swallowing dense neutron stars, calling it “Pac-Man in space.”