Morning Reads for Do a Grouch a Favor Day (February 16)

Good morning, sunshines! It’s Do a Grouch a Favor Day. Enjoy!

Now, on to the news!

Pat Conroy

• Former Governor Sonny Perdue was chosen yesterday as the sole finalist to be the chancellor of the University System of Georgia. I can’t envision a way this is going to go well for the USG.
• Governor Brian Kemp intends to appoint Judge Andrew Pinson to replace the retiring Chief Justice David Nahmias on the Georgia Supreme Court. (Alternate link.)
• State Senator Lindsey Tippins has announced he won’t seek another term.
• The farm stink bill — now benignly dubbed “Freedom to Farm” — is back and getting hearings.
• Rome City Commissioners are considering a 9% water rate increase in order to pay for a filtration system that can remove toxic chemicals dumped into the Oostanaula River upstream.
• Several neighbors testified yesterday in the federal hate crimes trial of the three men who killed Ahmaud Arbery.
• If you feel like the Atlanta real estate market has been atypically tough in the past year — even when taking the nationwide hot market into account — it’s because investors bought up a quarter of available properties. (Alternate link.)

Flannery O’Connor

• The families of the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre have settled with Remington for $73 billion, the largest payout ever for a gun manufacturer. (Alternate link.)
• President Joe Biden has ordered the release of the Trump White House visitor logs to the January 6th Commission.
• Mazars USA announced that it had parted ways with the Trump Organization and considers the last decade of financial statements from the company “unreliable.”
• A jury has rejected former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s libel suit against the New York Times.
• The Chris Cuomo scandal continues to end careers at CNN.
• The Western U.S. is now in a megadrought and is the driest it’s been in at least 1,200 years. (Alternate link.)
• Scientists believe they may have cured a patient of HIV for the first time.
• Though Russia is claiming its pulling troops back from the Ukraine border, NATO countries aren’t buying it.
• The European Court of Justice has ruled that the EU can withhold aid to member nations whose governments fail to uphold the rule of law. This will immediately affect Hungary and Poland. (Alternate link.)
• Prince Andrew has settled his sex abuse lawsuit, though it is likely the Queen who will foot the bill.
• Prince Charles is now under fire as the London police investigate a cash-for-honors scandal at his charity.
• Ottawa is considering using “no-go” zones to deal with the trucker convoy protestors. (Alternate link.)
• In case you’re being led to think Canadians support the “truckers:”
  • One poll finds 72% of Canadians surveyed want the protestors to “go home,” and 44% say they support stronger restrictions as a result of the protest.
  • A second poll finds 65% Canadians surveyed consider the protesters a “selfish minority.”
  • A third poll finds 64% of Canadians surveyed believe the protests are harming their democracy and must be stopped immediately.
• 54 additional unmarked graves have been found at the sites of former residential schools in Saskatchewan.
• Aljazeera has a good explainer on the escalating conflict over the hijab ban at colleges in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. (Alternate link.)
• Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández has been arrested at the request of the U.S. government on an array of drug trafficking charges.

Flannery O’Connor

• A former Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency official has been indicted on charges stemming from faking two pregnancies while a state employee. (Alternate link.)