National

How to watch Joe Biden’s speech on the pandemic today

As the delta variant of COVID-19 surges and hospitals overflow, President Joe Biden is set to address the nation Thursday at 5 p.m. to unveil his new six point plan to combat the virus. Details of the plan have not been released, but vaccine mandates are expected to play a prominent role. If you are planning to watch the speech, it should be carried on the major networks ABC, NBC, and CBS, as well as cable news stations like CNN. The White House will also be streaming the address live at this link. In Georgia, the pandemic has taken 20,298…

Georgians react to crisis in Afghanistan

President Joe Biden addressed the nation Monday and defended his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan despite the rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban. In Georgia, residents were quick to share their opinions of Biden's actions, the overall effort in Afghanistan and the Taliban's swift advance back to power. Below are some local reactions posted on social media. https://twitter.com/Meagan_M_Hanson/status/1426966946969526278 https://twitter.com/C4CEO/status/1427661774145339398 https://twitter.com/miltonlaura/status/1427638905088708608 https://twitter.com/DennisMurray/status/1427589653994119168 https://twitter.com/FlanaganLovesGA/status/1427578477839069187 https://twitter.com/ATramblay/status/1427569249086840833

Cuomo to resign as New York governor after sexual harassment allegations

(The Center Square) – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, saying he did not want to be a distraction, announced Tuesday afternoon that he will resign as governor, with that move effective in 14 days. When the resignation goes into effect, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will become New York’s 57th governor and the first woman to lead the state. The decision to step down comes one week after a five-month investigation overseen by state Attorney General Letitia James found that 11 women made credible claims that Cuomo sexually harassed them. Even in the moments before he announced his resignation, the three-term Democrat fought…

You may get an alert on your phone Wednesday. Here’s why

Tomorrow afternoon, you may notice a rare alert on your phone. This is part of a national test of the country's public alert and warning systems. Here are the details you need to know about the test. FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission will test the nation’s public alert and warning systems at 2:20 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, August 11. FEMA regularly tests the public alert and warning systems to assess the operational readiness of the supporting infrastructure. The tests also help identify any needed technological and administrative improvements to the systems. This week’s testing will be the sixth test…

TikTok is now the most popular mobile video app

Despite facing competition and privacy concerns, TikTok's 2020 growth appears to have solidified. It has now emerged as the most popular mobile video platform for the last year. Data acquired by Finbold indicates that TikTok was the most popular mobile video app in 2020 globally, with 660.12 million downloads. Singapore's Likee trails TikTok, accounting for 270.3 million downloads, while SnackVideo ranks third with 233.57 million downloads. Locally, the app has gained so much popularity that the Georgia Secretary of State's office used the platform two years ago to educate voters about Georgia's new voting system. Despite strong brand support and longevity, YouTube…

Democrats unveil new voting rights bill named after John Lewis

House Democrats plan to unveil next week a new version of legislation named after the late Georgia civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis that could protect voting rights across the U.S. During a Friday press conference, House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina said that House Democrats are expected to introduce a revised H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights and Advancement Act, on Aug. 6. That is the same date that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Clyburn said that many House Democrats are in favor of including provisions that would bolster…

U.S. House votes to give Georgia’s confederate statue the boot

The U.S. House voted Tuesday to remove a statue of former Georgia governor Alexander Hamilton Stephens from Statuary Hall at the Capitol, as well as evict stone monuments to other men who fought for the Confederacy or served in its government. Also flagged for removal is a bust of 19th century Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, a Marylander who wrote the despised Dred Scott decision. The legislation passed on a vote of 285-120, with all the nay votes from Republicans and 67 of them voting with Democrats. Georgia’s delegation voted along party lines. The marble bust of Taney, which is displayed…

Georgians react to Biden’s presidential address

Marking his first 100 days in office, President Joe Biden gave his first joint address to Congress Wednesday night. The speech is usually called the State of the Union, but is called a Presidential Address when given during a president's first year in office. During the speech, Biden addressed a paired down House chamber with fewer members of congress, all of whom were socially distanced and wearing masks. Biden pitched his American Families Plan, the cornerstone project of his agenda. Highlights of the American Families Plan include: At least four years of free college educationDirect support for families who need…

Senate fails to impeach Trump

The U.S. Senate voted on Saturday to acquit former President Donald Trump on a charge of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol, concluding his second impeachment trial with the same verdict as his first impeachment. In the 57-43 vote, seven Republicans joined every Senate Democrat and independent in support of convicting Trump. Those GOP senators were Richard Burr of North Carolina; Bill Cassidy of Louisiana; Susan Collins of Maine; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; Mitt Romney of Utah; Ben Sasse of Nebraska; and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. In the evenly divided Senate chamber — which has…

What will Joe Biden do on his first day in office?

Joe Biden early Wednesday unveiled the list of executive orders, memos and directives he will make when he assumes the presidency later in the day, reversing a slew of Trump administration actions and laying out new policies of his own. “These actions are bold, begin the work of following through on President-elect Biden’s promises to the American people, and, importantly, fall within the constitutional role for the president,” the transition team said in a statement. According to the transition team, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will: Ask the American people to mask up for 100 days in a “100…

Here’s how Joe Biden’s inauguration tomorrow will look different

(The Center Square) – President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration Wednesday will look far different from those in recent memory due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and a violent outbreak at the Capitol two weeks ago. The number of attendees has been scaled back for health precautions, and some 25,000 National Guardsmen will be on patrol. Streets around the Capitol are blocked off, a security perimeter of 4.6 miles has been fenced off and the National Mall has been closed, all aimed at reducing crowd size. There also will not be a parade following the ceremony from the Capitol to the White…

Trump Impeached Again: How your representatives voted

In a historic move, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump for the second time. Trump becomes the first president in history to be impeached twice. The impeachment was a bipartisan vote of 232 to 197, with 10 republicans crossing party lines to vote in favor of impeachment. Trump was impeached for his role in inciting the violent raid on the U.S. Capitol last week that resulted in the loss of five lives in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's electoral college victory in the November election. All of Georgia's representatives in Congress…

Capitol raid will become Trump’s legacy

The president promised he would be there every step of the way. It was a pledge Donald Trump made to thousands of supporters who had gathered Wednesday morning to protest Congress’s certification of the Electoral College vote. Behind bulletproof glass on a stage at the Ellipse, only a quarter-mile from the U.S. Capitol, Trump insisted he would not concede, warned “weak Republicans” that retribution was imminent, and urged his vice president to throw out the vote. “Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country,” the president…

Nashville Christmas Day RV Explosion: What We Know

(The Center Square) – A warning blared from a parked RV in downtown Nashville for 15 minutes before it exploded around 6:30 a.m. Friday, injuring three people and downing 911 communications for miles in what authorities call an “intentional act.” Nashville Police officers responded to a call of shots fired at 166 Second Avenue North at 5:30 a.m. Christmas morning. They found a parked RV blasting an audio warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes. “Evacuate now. There is a bomb. A bomb is in this vehicle and will explode," a recording of a woman’s voice coming from…

Biden wins presidency

Vice-President Joe Biden has become President-Elect Joe Biden. Biden now has enough electoral votes to secure the presidency after Pennsylvania's votes put him over the 270 vote threshold to win the White House. The count continues in Georgia, but Biden still holds the lead in the state, which could go blue for the first time since the 1992 election when Georgians favored Bill Clinton of George H.W. Bush. While republicans have several lawsuits pending regarding the vote count in several states, none of those lawsuits is likely to change the outcome of the election. President-Elect Joe Biden will become the…