Morning Reads for National Cookie Cutter Week (December 1)

Hello, and happy December! I’ve always loved this day because it was my grandparents’ wedding anniversary, so it was a special day to bridge the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas gap. It’s also the first day I’ve been able to live in my new (to me) house because I finally got someone to turn on my water yesterday. Moving is something, isn’t it?

Anyway, yes, I’m now a homeowner and no longer a renter, and I moved from the metropolis of Milledgeville to the wee town of Sparta. And now I will be taking the drum of demanding rural broadband from Nathan, as it’s my reality. Honestly, I do have broadband because I’m in the city of Sparta, but I went from cable to broadband, which is its own step backwards of two decades. Good heavens, how do people live like this in 2021? Guess I’ll be finding out…

Enough about me. It’s National Cookie Cutter Week because, y’all, ’tis the season to bake some Christmas cookies. Did you know there was a National Cookie Cutter Club? I didn’t, but thanks to this celebration, I’ve found them, and their special cookie cutter for 2021’s week.

Anyway, I’m going to get us on to the news now, I swear. Let’s go.

Pat Conroy

• Andre Dickens is Atlanta’s next mayor. (Alternate link.)
• LaRhonda Patrick is Warner Robin’s next mayor.
• Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has met with the January 6th Commission.
• A State of Georgia inmate in Rome has been sentenced for running a multi-million dollar fraud scheme from prison.
• There’s a new documentary on the Irwin County Detention Center regarding its handling of COVID. (Alternate link.)
• Rich McCormick will try again for Congress this cycle, but now in the newly Republican-friendly 6th District.
• A Clayton County police officer and three others died yesterday during a shootout.

Alice Walker

• The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments on a case that could overturn Roe v. Wade.
• The Biden Administration’s vaccination mandate has been blocked by a Louisiana judge. (Alternate link.)
• Congress has until Friday to avert yet another government shutdown.
• Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker won’t run for reelection. (Alternate link.)
• Florida state prisons continue to have an issue with white guards openly touting ties to white supremacy groups in order to intimidate both prisoners and colleagues of color.
• This article takes a hard look into America’s “shadow foster system,” which I had no idea existed.
• The European Union is considering making COVID vaccinations mandatory.
• The World Health Organization has agreed to begin discussing a pandemic treaty.
• Internationally, the COVID pandemic has increased trust in science and scientists. (Alternate link.)
  

Flannery O’Connor

• A World War II bomb blew up in Munich, wounding four.