Morning Reads for National Paper Airplane Day (May 26)

Good morning, and happy National Paper Airplane Day to you all! That’s right, there’s an observance for paper airplanes, and it is today. The best way to celebrate is, as you may have guessed, to make yourself a paper airplane. In case you need directions (like me), HGTV has step-by-step instructions for five types that fly far distances.

It’s also World Dracula Day, which celebrates the anniversary of the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1897. Interestingly, Romania currently is using Dracula’s castle as a COVID vaccination site.

With that, let’s get to today’s news.

Pat Conroy

• There are some changes coming to Stone Mountain Park, but what’s possible is limited by state law. (Alternate link.)
• Governor Brian Kemp signed an executive order outlawing vaccine passports and preventing state agencies, state service providers, and state properties from asking about vaccination status. (Alternate link.)
• A federal judge has ruled the state’s “Israel oath,” passed in 2016, unconstitutional.
• U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing pushback from the GOP leadership for her recent Holocaust remarks.
• State Senator Butch Miller will run for Lieutenant Governor.
• Residents of rural Georgia counties enduring the “stench of death” from neighboring farms should remember next November that the General Assembly passed and Governor Kemp signed legislation this year to tie the hands of local authorities aiming to impose stricter regulations.

Alice Walker

• Half of all adults in the United States are now vaccinated against COVID.
• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will force a vote on the January 6th commission this week.
• Ohio will hold its first Vax-a-Million drawing tonight.
• Texas Governor Greg Abbott will likely sign legislation allowing people to carry a gun without a license, background check, or training. (Alternate link.)
• The Pentagon has sped up troop withdrawal from Afghanistan to be completed by mid-July. (Alternate link.)
• The United States is seeking to rebuild its relationship with Palestine.
• Amazon has agreed to buy MGM for $8.5 billion. (Alternate link.)
• The prosecutor in the Trump organization criminal probe has convened a grand jury. (Alternate link.)
• Former U.S. Senator Arlen Specter’s son and ghostwriter have alleged that former President Donald Trump tried to bribe the senator to drop the federal investigation into the National Football League’s Spygate debacle in 2008.
• A study has found that though white men make up just 30% of the U.S. population, they hold 62% of all elected offices across the United States.
• Former U.S. Senator John Warner has died at the age of 94.
• The European Union has announced sanctions against Belarus for the plane diversion in order to arrest an opposition journalist, including banning its airlines from using the airspace and airports of the 27-nation bloc.
• The Mexican government says a private builder has destroyed the outskirts of the Teotihuacán ruins with unauthorized bulldozing.
• COVID vaccination makers have stepped up their lobbying game against potential temporary patent waivers in several countries. (Alternate link.)
• The New York Times has analyzed data coming out of India and realized the country is severely underreporting its COVID deaths. (Alternate link.)
• The Associated Press has taken an in-depth look at how the junta in Myanmar are using terror to maintain control of the country since the February coup.

Flannery O’Connor

• Seven Tasmanian devil joeys were born in the wild on the Australian mainland for the first time in 3,000 years.