Mid-Morning Reads for National Dessert Day (October 14)

Good morning! It’s National Dessert Day, which means freebies galore. (You’re welcome, or I’m sorry, whichever is appropriate!)

Now, let’s get on to the news:

Pat Conroy

• In case you’ve missed any of the recent debates for Georgia races (Senate, Congress, Public Commission), the Atlanta Press Club has posted them on their Facebook page.
• We broke our record for turnout during the first day of early voting, with more than 128,000 Georgians casting ballots.
• President Trump will hold a rally in Macon on Friday.
• Ivanka Trump was in Acworth yesterday at an event for David Perdue. (Alternate link.)
• Here’s an interesting list of who was – and who wasn’t – at the rally with Donald Trump, Jr. in Cobb County on Monday. (Alternate link.)
• Sonny Perdue violated the Hatch Act in one of his recent speeches and must reimburse the government, per the Office of Special Counsel.
• The Atlanta City Council has asked Norfolk Southern to consider alternate property for its fuel terminal so that the community can memorialize the Chattahoochee Brick Company and the many who were forced to work there under Georgia’s convict lease system.

Alice Walker

• President Trump and Vice President Biden will participate in “competing town halls” on Thursday, one on NBC and the other on ABC.
• The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed the Trump Administration to stop the Census count early.
• COVID-19 is killing Americans at a far higher rate than other “high-income” countries.
• The probe into Obama Administration officials as to whether they improperly requested the identities of individuals whose names were redacted in intelligence documents has ended without charges and without a public report. (Alternate link.)
• The Post Office Inspector General’s office is investigating USPS’s failure to update at least 1.8 million changes of address in August.
• Here’s a recap of the Amy Coney Barrett hearings, day 2. (Alternate link.)
• The American Enterprise Institute has published an update to their assessment of Biden’s tax proposals.
• New research explains why California’s “fire weather” is getting worse.
• Thailand is seeing a wave of protests while King Maha Vajiralongkorn is making a (rare) appearance in the country.
• Chinese President Xi Jinping has told his troops to “focus on war preparedness.”
• A British bomb from WW2 exploded underwater in Poland during an attempt to diffuse it. (With video!)

Flannery O’Connor

• As if the construction at the I-75/I-16 junction in Macon wasn’t bad enough, recently drivers have been the targets of people throwing debris at them.
• Misinformation on Facebook is more popular now than it was in 2016. (Alternate link.)