NAACP Rally; Football Kickoff

1. Today’s weather will feel a lot like Tuesday’s, according to the National Weather Service: sunny, a high close to 90 degrees, not much humidity, not much wind, and a slight chance of pop-up storms in the afternoon and evening. The overnight low will be about 66. No word on the chance of earthquakes.

2. The national president of the NAACP, Benjamin Todd Jealous, is scheduled to take part in a press conference and rally outside the old courthouse on Waddell Street downtown today at 11 a.m. The demonstration will show support for John McNeil, a Kennesaw businessman who is serving a life sentence for a shooting death he and his supporters say was self-defense. Marietta Patch will have coverage of the event.

3. In a less politically charged media event, club football program is holding a press conference and meet-the-team event at the Student Life Center on the Marietta campus at 2:30 p.m. today. The first game of the Golden Eagles’ second season will be Labor Day, Sept. 5, at home on field against the Shorter University JV. Marietta Patch plans to be there as well.

4. Registration is open through Sept. 15 for the youth basketball program, open to boys and girls ages 6 to 14 who live in Cobb County. The fee is $60 for city residents, $95 for non-Marietta residents of Cobb. Practice begins Oct. 3, and the season runs through January. Get registration forms and more information here. Registration for the city’s adult basketball league begins Sept. 5.

5. broke ground on a new tower Tuesday, the Marietta Daily Journal reports. The tower will open in late 2012 or early 2013 with 108 private rooms, allowing the hospital to convert that many double-occupancy rooms to single-patient rooms as well. The tower will cost $38 million and will contribute to the hospital’s goal to have only private rooms, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in May.