Around the South for August 23rd: TX, GA, & MS

Texas: Abbott doles out school safety grants.  Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) has signed off on more than $5 million worth of grants to go towards school safety following the deadly shooting at Santa Fe High School that left 10 dead.  Some $1.5 million will go to the City of Santa Fe itself for recovery aid, while most of the rest will be dispersed among state agencies looking to boost school safety statewide.  Georgia: John Lewis honored.  Longtime U.S. Congressman John Lewis (D-Atlanta) is being honored with a major Atlanta street being named after him.  The new road will be called “John Lewis Freedom Parkway,” a great honor for the civil rights icon who marched beside Martin Luther King Jr. and has served as congressman for more than 30 years.  Hyde-Smith feels the heat.  Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) is under pressure from challenger Chris McDaniel, a fellow Republican, whose brash supporters jeered her at a major speech at the Neshoba County Fair earlier this month.  Loud boos could be heard when the incumbent Senator bragged about her Conservative record, (she flipped parties in 2010) and some were seen with signs acknowledging the fact that she was reluctant to support President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign.  The White House was said to be disappointed when Hyde-Smith was appointed in place of the retiring Thad Cochran earlier this year.