(GA. NEWS NETWORK)
*The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is mourning the loss of one of its students who died in floods in Texas. The university has confirmed Joyce Catherine Badon is one of the victims in the catasphrophic flooding. Badon was a senior architecture student at the college who they say recently helped redesign donation center for Goodwill. The university expressed their condolences to the Badon family and friends and are offering grief counseling for students. Badon’s parents posted on social media last week that their daughter had been staying with friends at a home on a hill along the river for the Fourth of July holiday. Badon was 21.
*Speeders are going to targeted on Georgia’s highways and interstates in a special multi agency operation. State and local law enforcement agencies are warning Georgians to slow down during next week’s multi-state speed enforcement operation, Operation Southern Slow Down. Fox5 reports that the operation will target speeding and aggressive driving on major highways and interstates in Georgia and other southern states. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that speeding was a factor in one out of five traffic deaths in Georgia from 2019 to 2023. Last year, over 62,000 citations and warnings were issued during Operation Southern Slow Down.
*As Democrats paint bleak pictures of overrun food banks due to SNAP cuts in Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill, the feds are cracking down on widespread fraud in the program. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says the USDA is starting a new security initiative to strengthen national security and safeguard food assistance systems – including disqualifying SNAP-authorized retailers if they are found complicit in fraud. Georgia resident and cancer patient, Mary Klase, tells ANF thieves drained her EBT account twice. Newsweek reports the total number of fraudulent SNAP transactions nationally increased by 55% between the last quarter of fiscal year 2024 and the first quarter of fiscal year 2025.