In Other News: Georgia infections show sharper rise if rapid tests included; Can I celebrate Halloween during the pandemic?

Published 10:54 am Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Editor’s note: “In Other News” is a list of state, national and global headlines compiled by Daily Citizen-News staff from Associated Press stories. Click on the headlines below to read the full stories.

Georgia infections show sharper rise if rapid tests included

ATLANTA — COVID-19 infections are rising more rapidly in Georgia, in line with a national trend of increasing cases. The broadest measure of COVID-19 cases, which includes rapid antigen tests as well as the more precise genetic tests, shows the number of confirmed and probable cases was 18% higher in the week that ended Friday compared to the week before, according to a report issued by the Georgia Department of Public Health. The state recorded 10,086 genetic positives and 2,564 antigen positives last week, tipping Georgia back above 100 weekly cases per 100,000 people, one measure of rapid spread.

Can I celebrate Halloween during the pandemic?

Yes, but probably not like you normally would. Health experts say some Halloween traditions like crowding on doorsteps for candy and inching your way through haunted houses heighten the risk of spreading COVID-19 and should be avoided. But there are ways to adapt celebrations. Outdoor pumpkin carving, a virtual or neighborhood costume parade or a scary movie marathon at home are some options that minimize contact with strangers.

Judge: US can’t replace Trump in columnist’s slander suit

NEW YORK — A federal judge on Tuesday denied President Donald Trump’s request that the United States replace him as the defendant in a defamation lawsuit alleging he raped a woman in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. The decision by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan came after the Justice Department argued that the United States — and by extension the American people — should replace Trump as the defendant in a lawsuit filed by the columnist E. Jean Carroll. The government’s lawyers contended that the United States could step in as the defendant because Trump was forced to respond to her lawsuit to prove he was physically and mentally fit for the job. A lawyer for Carroll, Roberta Kaplan, called it a clear victory for her client.

Blowin’ in the wind: Lost interviews hold new Dylan insights

For nearly half a century, they were blowin’ in the wind: lost interviews that contained surprising new insights about celebrated singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Transcripts of the 1971 interviews with the late American blues artist Tony Glover — and letters the two friends exchanged — have surfaced at a Boston auction house. They reveal that Dylan changed his name because he worried about anti-Semitism and wrote “Lay Lady Lay” for actress Barbra Streisand. Some of the 37 typed pages contain handwritten notes in Dylan’s own scrawl, said R.R. Auction, which is selling Glover’s trove of Dylan archives. “My work is a moving thing,” Dylan scribbled in one spot. Elsewhere, he used a blue marker to strike through passages he evidently didn’t like. “In many cases, the deletions are more telling than the additions,” said Bobby Livingston, the auction house’s executive vice president.