Community tea

President Joe Biden will travel to Buffalo, New York, on Tuesday to meet with the families of victims after a racially motivated mass shooting Saturday at a grocery store left 10 people dead, the White House announced Sunday. Biden told reporters earlier Sunday that he had “not yet” spoken with victims’ families and was “trying to work out the schedule” to make a trip to the area. He also spoke by phone with Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday. Biden expressed condolences for the families during remarks Sunday at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service and said he was receiving regular briefings from his team.

On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg blamed the worsening baby formula shortage on Abbott Nutrition, one of the largest formula suppliers in the country. Baby formula shortages due to supply chain and workforce issues were amplified by a recall of formulas made by Abbott and an ongoing shutdown of its manufacturing plant in Michigan over safety concerns. “Fundamentally, we are here because a company was not able to guarantee that its plant was safe, and that plant has shut down,” Buttigieg said. Asked about the government’s role in the shortage as a regulator, Buttigieg again placed blame squarely on the company. “Let’s be very clear. This is a capitalist country. The government does not make baby formula, nor should it. Companies make formula, and one of those companies — a company which, by the way, seems to have 40 percent market share — messed up and is unable to confirm that a plant, a major plant, is safe and free of contamination,” he added. “The administration’s also been working with other companies to try to surge their production. That’s led to an increase in production, which is helping to compensate. But at the end of the day, this plant needs to come back online safely,” Buttigieg said.

Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a requirement that Georgia’s elementary schools schedule daily recess for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, however, the new law doesn’t say how much recess time students should have. His change of heart comes on the heels of a bill Kemp vetoed three years ago that urged schools to provide an average of 30 minutes of recess per day. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that recess benefits children socially and emotionally and helps them focus in the classroom.

Gov. Brian Kemp also signed the bill to create a new city of Mableton this week, setting the stage for a November referendum on whether to incorporate the south Cobb city. If approved by voters, the new city of 77,505 residents would encompass the southernmost part of the county between Austell and Smyrna.

Georgia Power says nearly 1,000 megawatts of planned solar installations are now delayed by a year, as supply chain issues and a federal investigation into Chinese panel manufacturers hamper the company’s transition to renewable energy. Georgia Power officials have warned of supply chain issues and a federal investigation of panel makers could delay the deployment of solar arrays.

It was a rough week for voting in Georgia last week as many voters were complaining about changes in polling locations and getting ballots with incomplete information, among other things. Voters are encouraged to check their voting status and confirm their voting location ahead of time.

Cobb County Elections had issues Monday with encoding the correct ballot combination on the election machine cards. The issue led to some voters receiving and casting incomplete ballots. Some ballots were incorrectly missing certain elections, including cityhood referendums. Eveler has said the issue was limited to Monday. The issue was identified when some voters noticed a cityhood question was missing from their ballot, even though they lived in the boundaries of one of the proposed cities. People who noticed the issue before casting their ballot were able to get a corrected ballot, Eveler said. But for those who had already cast their ballot, it was too late. Pro and anti-cityhood groups in Cobb sent out emails urging voters to check if they live in a proposed city’s boundaries before voting, and double-check their ballot to ensure it was complete.

A software outage for the system used to check in Georgia voters across the state led to problems at early voting locations later in the week according to the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Servers for ElectioNet, which is used to sign in voters, rebooted automatically Wednesday night as part of routine IT maintenance, Raffensperger’s office said. Two servers rebooting led to the system being offline early Thursday. State staffers began working around 6:30 a.m. to get the system back up and running, and the system was restored later in the morning.

U.S. Senate Republican candidate and Georgia football legend Herschel Walker was in South Cobb meeting the locals at Full Throttle Roadhouse bar located on Veterans Memorial Highway. Among those who attended this meet and greet was Mableton community leader Michael Murphy, who joined others wanting to hear from former President Donald Trump’s hand-picked candidate for U.S. Senate. Walker continues his refusal to debate others in the Republican primary, which is frustrating to others in the race who are trying to make traction with voters but are finding themselves overwhelmed by Walker’s Georgia Bulldog credentials.  

Hyundai is recalling over 215,000 cars to fix a potential fuel hose problem. The company will replace low-pressure fuel hoses in some 2013 and 2014 Sonata sedans. Affected owners will be notified by Hyundai starting July 5.  Due to the heat of the engine, the hoses can crack and leak over time. This creates a potential fire hazard. Dealers will replace affected hoses for free. Many of the vehicles were recalled for the same issue in 2020. 

Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (MBUSA) is recalling certain 2006-2012 ML-Class, GL-Class, and R-Class vehicles. Please refer to MBUSA’s recall report for specific vehicle model details. Moisture may accumulate and cause corrosion in the brake booster housing unit, which can result in reduced brake performance or brake failure. 292,287 units are affected. 

A-town is welcoming back Mariah Carey. The five-time Grammy award-winning artist and cultural icon Mariah Carey is reportedly headed to Sandy Springs. A 16,000-square-foot, six-bedroom mansion on Davis Drive was purchased on behalf of Carey, Buckhead.com first reported. The buyer was The Mirage Real Estate Trust, according to Fulton County property records. That trust has been linked to previous Carey real estate purchases. The Colonial-style, two-story house has five bathrooms and six half-bathrooms. It was built in 1990 and remodeled in 2002. The site includes a pool and tennis court, according to county property records. Carey previously had a 7,000-square-foot home nearby in Buckhead, which sold for $2.23 million in 2019.

Hall of Fame NBA player Bob Lanier who played with the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks died at 73. Lanier, who played center, died Tuesday at 73 after a short illness. Lanier, a left-handed big man was known for muscling up beside the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Darryl Dawkins. Lanier played 14 seasons with the Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks and averaged 20.1 points and 10.1 rebounds for his career. He is third on the Pistons’ career list in both points and rebounds. Detroit drafted Lanier with the No. 1 overall pick in 1970. He went into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.

Have a wonderful week….