Morning Reads for World Nature Conservation Day (July 28)

Good morning, and happy World Nature Conservation Day, because a healthy environment is the foundation for a stable and healthy society. Here are some suggestions for how to celebrate the day.

It’s also National Milk Chocolate Day! Here are some fun facts about chocolate.

Now to the news!

Pat Conroy

• Expect more changes to Georgia elections laws in the next term of the General Assembly. (Alternate link.)
• Fulton County is preparing to fight any attempted takeover of its elections process by the state.
• The Justice Department will permit B.J. Pak to speak to congressional panels about his abrupt resignation from his appointment as U.S. attorney last fall. (Alternate link.)
• Seven Georgia counties are in the “danger zone” for the Delta variant of COVID. They are Charlton, Lanier, Telfair, Heard, Jeff Davis, Treutlen and Bacon.
• Robert Aaron Long, who killed eight people, is going to prison for life as part of a plea deal in Cherokee County for four of the killings. He still faces charges for the four other victims he killed in Fulton County.

Alice Walker

• The CDC is recommending that Americans in areas with low vaccination rates start wearing masks indoors again.
• President Joe Biden is considering mandating vaccination for all civilian federal workers. (Alternate link.)
• Pfizer has posted data online that suggests a third dose of the vaccine increased protection against the delta variant five-fold.
• The Justice Department will not defend Alabama Representative Mo Brooks against charges he incited the rioters on January 6th.
• If you haven’t watched yesterday’s testimony from the Select Committee on the January 6th insurrection, the entire three and a half hours are available here.
• Jake Ellzey has defeated Trump-backed Susan Wright in a special election for a U.S. House seat in Texas.
• The Washington Post has a fascinating breakdown of what happens to the body in extreme heat and humidity.
• Hobby Lobby will forfeit the “Epic of Gilgamesh” tablet that was illegally smuggled out of Iraq and pay a $3 million fine.
• Remington has offered a $33 million settlement to the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims.
• Ecuador has revoked Julian Assange’s citizenship.
• The home of another investigative journalist in Russia has been raided by state police.
• Sweden has charged a Iranian Hamid Nouri with war crimes over the mass execution of Iraqi prisoners in 1988.

Flannery O’Connor

• There are now 43 Georgians being monitored for monkeypox.