About this episode
Today's top headlines:
LakePoint Sports open for baseball practices; tournaments resume in June. Rentals on other sports venues begin today. Hotel construction pushed back because of pandemic.
Business: Development Authority's website premieres. Gondola moving to former Tang's restaurant on Shorter. Steeplechase set for June 6.
Coronavirus: 3 patients in Floyd, none in Redmond as of Monday. State: 1,848 deaths with 43,400 positive cases. 930 from NW Georgia up 50% since April 30.
Politics: With two weeks to go until the June 9 primary, advance, absentee voting to increase. Next up: Ballot drop box in Rome.
Ware Mechanical Weather Center: Low to mid 80s through Thursday with less than a tenth of an inch of rain expected except in possible thunderstorms.
Truett's Chick-fil-A Sports Update: ESPN's 'Lance' brings back memories of Tour de Georgia's stops in Rome. YMCA reopens today -- but with some changes.
RANT OF THE DAY: 'Citizen's arrest, citizen's arrest!'
Most of us grew up watching The Andy Griffith Show and distinctly recall when Gomer Pyle made his "citizen's arrest, citizen's arrest," charging Deputy Barney Fife with making an illegal u-turn.
It seems Gomer has some relatives on the High Court of Facebook as we're seeing groups called out for not practicing social distancing. The latest venue was on Broad Street during the Memorial Day observance. Dozens of people were watching nearby at 11:30 a.m. and, yes, most were together (although we note that some were "families" which get a pass from the guidelines). We were witnesses but were not called to testify.
We're not aware of any actual arrests or what penalties were handed down by the High Court of Facebook aside from public shaming.
That said, social distancing is a concern here -- and elsewhere. In that other Rome, as in Italy, the country's government "will ask some 60,000 citizens to work as volunteers to enforce social distancing rules as it gradually removes coronavirus restrictions," after scenes of street gatherings renewed concerns about coronavirus making a second sweep (this according to Reuters news agency).
With cases still rising here, up 50 percent in less than a month, who will enforce the needed safeguards if we don't do it ourselves?
