Tours in Hostess City, Kindness

Sunday Solutions — Feb. 16, 2025

Good morning! For some of you, Monday is a federal holiday called Presidents Day to honor birthdays of both George Washington (Feb. 22) and Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 17), but the unofficial observance listed on many calendars is this one: Random Acts of Kindness Day. So there’s your call to action. Before you go out to do good, here’s some news from the past week and a few other items to fuel your day.

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NEWS: COMMUNITY

Tours and residents: Lines are drawn

Anyone who’s visited Savannah in the past decade will likely have seen the tours — walking groups, pub crawls, cemetery history walks, trolley and horse-drawn carriage rides. Overall, there are more than 60 licensed tour companies. Monday, the Downtown Neighborhood Association will host a discussion about how the 90-day pilot plan to regulate times and locations for some tours in mostly residential areas is working out. It’s another flash point for those who want to live in the Hostess City and those who just want to visit. Here are some details and a map to show where the actual lines are for the trial period.

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NEWS: PUBLIC HEALTH

Data purges & bird flu

That it’s a time of change has never been in doubt but how to measure it all may be. Over the past week, we spotted a theme across news partners that produce topic-related and general news: Missing data from collections that help governments, doctors and businesses make smart decisions each day. And, as we’ve said before, if you don’t keep data you can’t track success or failure of the work. Here are stories that caught our attention early:

• What federal data purges mean for state and local government From govtech.com, which shares technology opportunities and challenges with elected and other government officials across the country.
• Now offline: Government resources about Long COVID as a disability. From The Sick Times, dedicated to following the emerging stories from Long Covid as well as other public health issues.

Then came the flurry, ok, flock, of stories related to bird flu just as Georgia lifted its ban on poultry markets after testing cleared area birds near a recent outbreak.

• On front lines against bird flu, egg farmers say they’re losing the battle: Farms across the country debate whether to vaccinate birds, while awaiting federal guidance on what’s next in the fight. From KFF Health News.
• Trump administration slashes Georgia CDC workforce by 10% in sweeping cuts: As cuts kick in for probationary workers, the public health agency loses staff to track the next pandemic. From Georgia Recorder.
• Urgent CDC data, analyses on influenza, bird flu go missing as outbreaks escalate: It’s already a tough flu season in Georgia, and now doctors and county health departments have lost a key source of information to help them understand the spread. From KFF Health News.

While Georgia officials say the chance of a new bird flu outbreak is small, the chances of a regular human flu isn’t. It’ll be up to the state now to chart any spread in context with the rest of the world and let people know.

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Places with meaning

Congratulations to Anndancy for guessing last week’s Spyglass was a tribute to Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low on a wall at the historic First Headquarters at 330 Drayton St. in Savannah. This note will also serve to remind you that it’s time to grab those Thin Mints and Trefoils before they go away until next year. Go here to find them!

Test how well you spy details in Coastal Georgia. Give us the location of the item in the photo above. Here’s a hint: The answer can be found in The Current’s coverage this week. Some may be easier than others; some will be tougher. We’ll collect correct answers each week and draw for a weekly winner.

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EXPLAINER: GOVERNING

Legislature 101: Green button usually wins

While some bills draw headlines, most measures get a thorough airing in committees before they get a final vote. Of nearly 1,400 votes in the last term, the state House and Senate only said “no” 14 times. Data reporter Maggie Lee explains how it works in this week’s installment of Legislature 101.

But not everything goes to plan or without a hard debate.

Our nonprofit news partner Georgia Recorder has a weekly summary of a few things from the floor of the General Assembly you won’t likely find elsewhere. Last week as one legislator extolled the virtues of a presidential order to ban transgender players from women’s sports, another wanted to remind the House about other actions by the president himself. This week’s Gold Dome Nuggets includes Coastal Georgia’s own Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook. You can read it here for that and other moments.

Also from the week:

• Georgia bill banning school zone traffic cameras garners support: Speaker says camera funds should go to school safety.
• Georgia Senate OKs tax holiday for guns, bill to require safe storage faces GOP headwinds: Supporters say move will help cut down on deer population. Opponents say safety measures need to include storage requirements, especially following Barrow County school shooting.

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EXPLAINER: EDITOR’S CHOICE

☕ Your second cup: The kindness effect

This week, in honor of Random Acts of Kindness Day on Monday, we’re committing a first: We’re giving you a Second Cup rerun. Because sometimes we need to be reminded that every move matters, one way or another. And, there’s science to back it up. Read about how that works.

Enjoy.

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