Morning Reads for Ahmaud Arbery Day (February 23)

Good morning. It’s Ahmaud Arbery Day in Georgia, the second anniversary of his death. Georgians are encouraged to run 2.23 miles today to celebrate his life.

On a more upbeat note, thank you to all of our hospitality workers! I hope everyone you encounter today is pleasant. (Would that it would be like that every day!)

It’s also National Banana Bread Day, and I’m sure y’all know what to do with that.

Now, let’s get to the news, shall we?

Pat Conroy

• Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers have been found guilty of federal hate crimes.
• The Georgia Senate passed the benignly-named, yet is anything but, “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” which now goes to the House.
• Governor Brian Kemp has awarded grants totaling $422 million from federal COVID relief funds to more than 100 water and sewer projects concentrated in rural Georgia.
• Senate candidate Herschel Walker “is mad” at both Brian Kemp and David Perdue, so he won’t support either. (Alternate link.)
• The state has taken over the permitting approvals process for the Rivian EV plant after local opposition in Walton and Morgan Counties threatened to delay the project. (Alternate link.)
• An Atlanta jury has awarded $1.5 million to Ju’Zema Goldring over a “bogus” cocaine arrest in 2015 by the Atlanta Police Department.
• Georgia Department of Transportation will let a private company set toll rates on GA 400. (Alternate link.)
• Fox 5 has a beautiful portrait of the Gullah-Geechee community on Sapelo Island that’s worth a read.

Alice Walker

Sometimes, I can’t believe I’m actually writing these things, but…

• President Biden has imposed broad-ranging sanctions on Russia after the “beginnings of an invasion” of Ukraine.
  • The European Union has said it will impose sanctions on Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the country’s Internet Research Agency. (Alternate link.)
  • Germany has halted its approval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
  • Alternately, China has blamed the United States for “creating fear and panic” over this situation. Here’s the backstory on why China and Russia are so aligned. (Spoiler: It’s because they both want to take over weaker countries.)
  • On the side of Russia (and China)? Former President Donald Trump. And Tucker Carlson.
  • And so Republicans now view a murderous, war-mongering autocrat more favorably than their countrymen from an opposing political party. (Alternate link.)
• President Biden has narrowed his list of potential Supreme Court candidates to three. (Alternate link.)
• Rents in the United States went up a whopping 19.3% between December 2020 and December 2021 in the 50 largest metro areas. (Alternate link.)
• In some welcome news, White House economist Cecilia Rouse has said inflation should stabilize over this year. (Alternate link.)
• Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has approved requests from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police for National Guard assistance ahead of any D.C. trucker protests.
• Jurors in Minneapolis have started deliberating in the case of the three police officers charged in the death of George Floyd.
• In Louisville, former officer Brett Hankinson’s trial is underway over the death of Breonna Taylor. (Alternate link.)
• Nineteen officers from Austin have been indicted over their actions during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.
• The Canadian House of Commons has upheld Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invoking of the Emergency Powers Act against the trucker convoys. (Alternate link.)
• China has detained six people and fired eight lower-level Communist Party officials after an investigation into the case of a trafficked woman in the Yunnan Province.
• At least 60 people have been killed in a gold mine explosion in Burkina Faso.
• An Italian city is fundraising to help pay for retirees’ rising energy bills.

Flannery O’Connor

• Germany’s Alexander Zverev has been thrown out of the Mexican Open after attacking an umpire’s chair with his racket.