Happy Monday, everyone! Congratulations to GeorgiaPol contributor George Chidi for getting hitched over the weekend.
News by the Numbers
- 26 people – were killed in a mass shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, a small town located 30 miles southeast of San Antonio. The death toll is expected to rise as more information comes out.
- $250 an hour – Georgia officials agreed to shell out $250 an hour to former Governor Roy Barnes for his defense of Secretary of State Brian Kemp. Attorney General Carr was forced to withdraw from the case after Kemp blamed another party in the suit, Kennesaw State, for the error — blame that Kemp has since pointed elsewhere.
- 14 percent – that’s the percentage Sprint’s shares have fallen since September amid talks of a merger with T-Mobile. Those talks officially ended last weekend when SoftBank Group Corp and Deutsche Telekom AG couldn’t resolve how to share control of a combined Sprint/T-Mobile.
- 5 fractured ribs – Senator Rand Paul was attacked by his neighbor leaving him with fractured ribs and cuts around his mouth. A prolonged absence could complicate matters in the Senate. With only 52 votes and a patched-together majority, Trump’s agenda could be threatened.
- 11 minutes – President Trump’s Twitter account was taken offline by a rogue employee on his last day at Twitter. All jokes aside, this raises a huge security question in an age where major policy shifts are announced via Twitter rather than traditional media outlets. What if an employee can send a tweet from POTUS’ account saying they’ve launched a nuke?
- 104 schools – are classified as low performers in Georgia according to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. 41 of those are in metro Atlanta. They could be targeted for “turnaround” plans mandated by the state.
- $6 million – The Red Cross uncovered millions of dollars in fraud relating to the Ebola outbreak that ravaged West Africa in 2014 to 2016. As if people need another reason to never donate to the Red Cross. (That last link was written by a former professor of mine and is, quite frankly, incredible)