About this episode
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One of the GBI suspects is arrested on additional drug possession, distribution charges.
Among the deadliest days in Georgia: 78 new deaths in 24 hours (1,775). Positive cases climb to 40,663.
Gov. Brian Kemp's weekly coronavirus updates. Latest on equipment, personnel.
GHSA OK's conditioning starting June 8. Read the meeting minutes, critical provisions and testing criteria as high school sports crank up.
Pepperell starts drive-through graduations this evening; 3 on Saturday. Rome virtual graduation is Saturday.
Armuchee High to observe 30 seconds of silence in remembrance to murdered graduate.
Politics: Advance voting, returned absentee ballots mean almost 10% of Floyd County's 57,115 registered voters already have a say in the June 9 primary.
Ware Mechanical Weather Center: Storms, about a half inch of rain expected today. Mid to upper 80s through Memorial Day.
Truett's Chick-fil-A Sports Update: More on the GHSA report; another Floyd student-athlete signs with a college.
Rant of the Day: A rough 24 hours for the governor.
There's no page 1A story about it or lead item on the evening news. But Thursday was a day Brian Kemp was almost nonstop in the news, whether he wanted to be there or not.
It started with reports about Kemp and the state school superintendent appointing 72 people to "working groups" to get public schools ready to reopen by August. Then came final confirmation that Vice President Mike Pence would visit the governor and metro Atlanta later today.
By midafternoon, the governor was being praised by the executive director of the Georgia High School Association who was pitching that his board of trustees restart conditioning for student athletes next month.
At 4:30 p.m., Kemp held his latest briefing on the state of the state's fight against the virus. You again heard about fewer patients hospitalized, more scheduled although belated arrivals of needed assets in the battle as well as a few other bullet points.
Two hours later, an email from the governor's re-election team (for 2022, thank you) arrived, seeking assistance to "fight back against those playing pandemic politics."
And finally, confirmation that another 78 Georgians had died from coronavirus, tying it for the second deadliest day in the pandemic.
That fact somehow never got mentioned amid the day's other "headlines."
