About this episode
Today's top headlines:
Employment meltdown: More than 20,800 Northwest Georgians out of work in April. Jobless rates soar to 12.7 to 17.1 percent across Floyd, Bartow, Gordon, Polk, Chattooga counties.
Gordon County sheriff: Tennessee couple held on numerous charges following armed standoff at the Express Inn near Calhoun.
State death count at 1,933, up by 236 over 7 days; third largest gain to date. Floyd sees highest increase in positive cases in week ending Wednesday. Kemp on TV at 4 p.m.
Business: Greater Community Bank opens lobbies on Monday. Berry reopens campus, weekends only, starting June 13. River Ratz: No floating this summer.
Politics: Latest updates on absentee ballots, from new drop boxes to today's media briefing to scanning -- not counting -- those ballots starting June 3 in some areas.
Guest column: Whit Whitaker on what Herb's Barber Shop meant to West Rome: It 'stood as an example of where and how true community is formed.'
Ware Mechanical Weather Center: Two-thirds of an inch of rain today as showers, storms continue. Highs in the low to mid 80s into the weekend.
Truett's Chick-fil-A Sports Update: Delay of game for announcing early college football starts.
Rant of the Day:
Nearly 21,000 of our neighbors were unemployed in April, the latest and continuing fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. A county-by-county look on our Hometown Headlines' website today shows just how severe the numbers are.
In Floyd County, nearly 6,000 were without jobs with an unemployment rate of 13.5 percent. A year ago April, the jobless rate was 3.2 percent. In Bartow County, more than 7,000 were out of work with a 14.8 percent unemployment rate. A year earlier, a record low or near-record low of 2.9 percent was posted.
Sadly, these reports will only empower the "Open Georgia" crowd even as our state's death count approaches 2,000 victims since March 5. Those Clorox drinkers got vocal on Wednesday when a local business owner announced he's closing for the season, in part because of safety concerns. Some of the reaction was not just nasty but bitter.
As some of these commenting were from the business community, we hope their employers and customers react accordingly and send them to the unemployment lines. Let's see what they say then.
