Morning Reads for National Banana Split Day (August 25)

Good morning! While you’re reading this, I’m probably in Hancock County getting a COVID test. No, I’m not symptomatic. However, I work at one of Georgia’s public universities, where we are not requiring any sensible mitigation measures, so the likelihood I’ve been exposed to COVID this past week is in the code red “extreme risk” group according to microCOVID.org. I’m trying to keep everyone around me safe, so off I’ve trotted to Sparta, where they have continued to offer COVID testing appointments, unlike most of the county health departments in Georgia. To be clear, Baldwin County is testing on Mondays and Fridays, but I missed Monday’s testing period and thought the better of waiting until Friday. If your county health department is not offering testing, now would be the time to find out why, and where it’s possible for you to get a test periodically. There’s also home testing available. Y’all, please stay safe out there, and please get vaccinated if you haven’t already done so!

On a much more lighthearted note, it’s National Banana Split Day, and y’all know what that means, right? Yes, you should definitely go get some ice cream. Not being a big banana split person myself, about as close as I’m going to get to eating one is a scoop of Haagen-Dazs banana peanut butter chip.

Moving on to the news…

Pat Conroy

• With the Delta variant overwhelming hospitals throughout the state, Governor Brian Kemp is deploying 105 National Guard personnel to hospitals around the state.
• At the same time, the governor continues to handicap localities trying to diminish the virus’s spread, which would be cheaper on many levels. This week, he’s signed an executive order preventing counties and cities from requiring businesses to comply with local mask mandates.
• Unsurprisingly, Georgia’s health care workers are fatigued and frustrated in the face of this latest surge.
• Several county courthouses throughout the state are closed due to the COVID surge. (Alternate link.)
• Meanwhile, the University of Georgia is not planning to require proof of COVID vaccination for those attending Georgia football games this fall. Also, no masks and no social distancing. (Alternate link.)
• If you live in the Atlanta metro area, you’re already seeing ads for the mayor’s race. (Alternate link.)

Alice Walker

• With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s full approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, more employers are implementing vaccination mandates.
• A strong majority of Floridians think the state’s current COVID surge was preventable and blame Governor Ron DeSantis for it. (Alternate link.)
• President Joe Biden has received an intelligence briefing declaring COVID’s origins “inconclusive.” (Alternate link.)
• The flooding in Tennessee has killed at least 22 people, and 10 are still reported missing.
• The Federal Communications Commissions has proposed a $5.1 million fine for two conservative conspiracy theorists for robocalling Michigan voters in 2020 with false information about voting by mail.
• Pennsylvania will end “prison gerrymandering.”
• The U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to reinstate the Trump Administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy while asylum-seekers’ claims are evaluated. (Alternate link.)
• One Texas sheriff in a county that borders Mexico now carries a corpse trolley with him on patrol. (Alternate link.)
• President Biden insists the U.S. will meet its August 31 evacuation deadline in Afghanistan.
• Two Congressmen took a secret trip to Afghanistan during the middle of the evacuation.
• Victims of Haiti’s two recent disasters are finding they have nowhere to go upon their release from the hospital.
• The head of Iran’s prison system says the hacker-released videos of prisoner abuse in Evin prison are real.
• Charlie Watts, drummer of the Rolling Stones, has died.

Flannery O’Connor

• Three evacuees out of Afghanistan have given birth at Ramstein Air Base in Germany – one of which was born on the aircraft itself.