(Unsplash)

Moderna announced Thursday that the company has asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a low-dose version of its COVID-19 vaccine as the first vaccine for children younger than age 5. 

In a study involving about 6,700 children, the company said two doses of the vaccine administered 28 days apart to children ages 6 months to less than 6 years triggered levels of antibodies equivalent to what has protected older children and adults.

• "We are proud to share that we have submitted for authorization for our COVID-19 vaccine for young children," Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive officer, said in a statement. "We believe [the vaccine] will be able to safely protect these children against SARS-CoV-2, which is so important in our continued fight against COVID-19, and will be especially welcomed by parents and caregivers."

Then-President Donald Trump elbow bumps Herschel Walker during a 2020 campaign rally in Atlanta. Walker filed paperwork Tuesday to run for U.S. Senate in the key swing state of Georgia. (John Bazemore, AP)

A left-leaning political action committee is asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether Trump-backed U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker broke federal law by failing to properly file his personal financial disclosures.

End Citizens United sent a letter Thursday to the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ arguing Walker could be running afoul of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 by leaving off sources that paid him more than $5,000 and a full list of positions he holds in companies.

This comes after a GPB News report earlier this month where several ethics experts raised questions about the deficiencies and found inconsistencies in reporting sources of income and positions held (both compensated and uncompensated), as well as a failure to list any sources that paid Walker more than $5,000 in 2020 and 2021.

• “Since launching his Senate campaign, Herschel Walker has embarked on a long pathway of lies — about his business record, his education, and now about his finances, by omitting legally required information on his financial disclosure form,” End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller said in a statement. 

Dr. Julie Battle, chair of the Darby School at Brenau University. (Ellen Eldridge / GPB News)

The growth of Brenau University's J. Lynn Darby School of Adolescent Counseling, which is part of the Ivester College of Health Sciences, is driven by a national and statewide gap in mental health services, the university's president says.

• "We want to create the next generation of educators of those who will ultimately then be going out there," Skleder said. 

The new location in downtown Gainesville will accommodate more students at the bachelor and master's degree levels and, in fall 2023, a doctoral program in clinical psychology.

• "So we can start educating doctoral clinicians that can then not only help with the clinic, not only do research, but, most importantly, educate the next generation of clinicians," Skleder said.

The employment of counselors in substance abuse, behavioral disorder and mental health is expected to grow 23% through 2030, with about 41,000 annual job openings nationally, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

(Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)

Kevin Lopez, a member of Kennesaw State University’s class of 2024 who's paying his way through college by working construction, says he feels the pinch of rising prices.

• “Sometimes it does kind of affect my classwork, because obviously sometimes I get in late, and I really don’t have time because of work,” he said. 

AT ISSUE: Despite relief from a fee which will leave between $170 and $544 per semester in the pockets of Georgia students, and a bill awaiting Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature that'll add some state-funded needs-based aid, many college students are finding inflation is eating up the savings.

• "Honestly, my parents help, but like even with that, it still is a little challenging to try to get through college as a college student, I’m not going to lie,” Kennesaw freshman Destinee Jordan said. “Things do come up. We’re kind of starting to be adults and growing up."

Mariah Parker, aka Linqua Franqa, in Athens City Hall. (File)
 

Though Athens, Ga., one of the nation's best college towns, has a robust musical creative community, 30% of the Athens-Clarke county population lives in poverty — a percentage that's even higher in District 2, just east of the University of Georgia campus — and the creative community is also unbalanced, says Mariah Parker, better known to some as the hip-hop artist Linqua Franqa.

• "I noticed its lack of color," they said. "All of the rappers were relegated to the corners of the city, both musically and geographically."

But with their new album Bellringer, Parker is hoping to make change both by extending their reach as an artist and coming into their own as a public office holder.

• DOING IT ALL: Running on a platform of racial and economic justice, Parker won the District 2 county commission seat in 2018, making national headlines by taking the oath of office on The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The 30-year-old Parker is also a doctoral student at UGA and recently became a parent, they said on Twitter. 

Read more — and watch Linqua Franqa's music video — here.