In the news
■ Greg Abbott, Texas governor, says he tested negative for covid-19 just four days after testing positive, and because “I’m told that my infection was brief and mild because of the vaccination that I received,” he said on Twitter, “I encourage others who have not yet received the vaccination to consider getting one.”
■ Kay Ivey, governor of Alabama, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the U.S., echoed coach Nick Saban in urging college football fans to get vaccinated before heading to stadiums in a few weeks: “Simply get the shot, then go enjoy your football game.”
■ Jesse Jackson, the preacher, civil-rights leader and two-time presidential candidate who is now 79 and has Parkinson’s disease, was hospitalized in Chicago after testing positive for covid-19 despite being vaccinated.
■ John Crain, president of Southeastern Louisiana University, announced Fast Track, a pandemic-inspired policy making high school students with a minimum grade-point average of 2.50 automatically eligible for admission starting in the fall of 2022.
■ Allen Poole of the Georgia governor’s office of highway safety says the problem of “too many of these cases going to trial without any toxicology evidence” will be lessened by a $44,000 grant to train law enforcement officers to draw blood from people suspected of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
■ A.G. Helton, CEO of a property manager in Yazoo City, Miss., says “it’s going to be a great thing” as the city approved an ordinance requiring businesses and shopping centers to install video cameras to aid law enforcement officers.
■ Ibnisa Durr, 25, an Atlanta rapper who uses the name Paper Lovee and was wanted in connection with a shooting, was jailed on charges of obstruction of law enforcement, trying to elude officers and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon after a highway chase that ended in a crash.
■ Tyler James of Kentucky said the waves off an Alabama beach threw him “like a rag doll” as officials warned that three people have drowned off the state’s coast in recent days.
■ Dan Gibson, mayor of Natchez, Miss., heralded a “rising from the ashes” as developers announced Project Phoenix to revive the downtown Eola Hotel, a luxury property built in 1927 that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places but has been closed since 2014.