Story No. 1 – Primary filing period opens: Filing for the Republican and Democratic primary elections officially began this past Monday and will run through Dec. 15. The election will be held March 6.
Why it is important: Because there are plenty of important seats open this election cycle, including: State Senator, State Representative (x2), Sheriff, District Attorney, County Attorney, Pct. 1 Commissioner, and Pct. 3 Commissioner – not to mention several more localized races.
Learn more: The Malakoff News had a midweek roundup of filings.
Story No. 2 – Parade time: Santa can’t come to town without a parade, it seems, and Henderson County residents have their choice of four different events over the next two weekends. Athens and Gun Barrel City will both be hosting parades this Saturday night. Next Saturday, Dec. 10, Malakoff will host the only daytime parade and Eustace will host its Christmas on the Square.
Why it is important: Because we don’t want any Scrooges around here.
Learn more: Here’s info on the Athens parade, the GBC parade, and the Malakoff parade. Sorry, we couldn’t find anything for Eustace except the date.
Story No. 3 – Michael Landers honored: Trinity Valley Community College women’s basketball coach Michael Landers received a plaque and some much deserved praise Wednesday night for reaching the 400-win mark.
Why it is important: Because the TVCC women’s basketball program is a source of excellence year in and year out — and you really don’t get to see excellence all that often.
Learn more: Not much else to say.
Bonus info.: Remember, the TVCC football Cardinals will be in the Citizens Bank Bowl this weekend.
Story No. 4 – Kendall Sanders decommits: Athens senior Kendall Sanders backed off his verbal commitment to play football at OSU this week, saying he would like to look closer at other offers.
Why it is important: Because the move came after an unofficial visit to Austin and the University of Texas — and everything about UT is important.
Learn more: UPDATE: On Friday, the Athens Daily Review reported that Kendall Sanders has decided to commit to the University of Texas. Jayson Larson at the Review has the latest.
Story No. 5 – Senate passes defense spending bill: The U.S. Senate Thursday passed a $662 billion defense spending plan. Included in the plan is a controversial provision that would allow the government to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists, even if they are American citizens.
Why it is important: Rarely does 5 Things pick a national story, but the balance between security and civil rights touches us all.
Learn more: To try and be fair we were going to run the stories from both Fox News and MSNBC, but both websites used the Associated Press version. Instead we flipped a coin, so here is the Associated Press story on Fox News - which is identical to the story on MSNBC.