Hello! How’s your workday going? I’m currently displaced due to a construction project, but I’ll see my office again in a couple of weeks, hopefully…
It’s also National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, so here’s my favorite recipe. I also like this one a lot, too.
And now, let’s get to the news.
Pat Conroy
- The state Inspector General has found that the Georgia Department of Transportation did nothing wrong when it changed a road design to financially benefit one of its board members. (Alternate link.)
- Athens is the third major city in Georgia to reimpose a mask mandate.
- There are fake $100 bills circulating in Rabun County.
- Georgia Democrats are rallying with other state legislators in D.C. in support of voting rights.
- While the state has reduced its welfare rolls, significantly more Georgians have needed food assistance since the beginning of the pandemic. (Alternate link.)
Alice Walker
- The Centers for Disease Control has extended its eviction moratorium.
- The United States will begin offering COVID vaccines to migrants who have crossed the U.S.-Mexican border. (Alternate link.)
- Florida broke its previous record for patients hospitalized for COVID last week.
- President Joe Biden has joined the chorus of voices calling for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign.
- Missouri Governor Mike Parson has pardoned the couple who pointed guns at passing Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020.
- The five Miami Beach police officers caught on video beating a black man at a hotel will face criminal charges.
- Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked a judge to block the release of his tax returns to Congress. (Alternate link.)
- Extreme weather due to climate change is now hitting wealthier countries.
- The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack on a military official’s home in Kabul. (Alternate link.)
- Protests over the forced cremation of a 9 year-old Dalit girl – an alleged sexual assault victim – have entered a fourth day in Delhi.
- The AP has a good explainer on the conditions that prompted the Olympic athlete from Belarus to defect to Austria.
- Americans will have to quarantine for a week regardless of vaccination status when traveling to Israel. (Alternate link.)
Flannery O’Connor
- Sixteen people on their way to a wedding were killed by lightning in Bangladesh.