High School Scholars Honored

1. The rain has cleared out, leaving a cold front and some morning fog in its wake. The high temperature today will be only about 67 degrees, the National Weather Service says, and it will feel even colder because of a north wind blowing steadily at 10 to 15 mph and gusting to 25 mph. Yes, we're talking about the wind-chill factor in May. That will be even truer tonight as the temperature falls to about 40 while the wind keeps blowing.

2. Congratulations to five East Cobb high school seniors who have won $2,500 National Merit Scholarships, announced today by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.: Abubakar Abid and Alex M. Li of ; Anthony E. Altshul and Michelle Lee of ; and Marshall D. Haltom of . This has been a big week for Michelle Lee. On Monday, she was named a . On Tuesday, the three-time All-State musician and 19 other Wheeler seniors performed with the Wheeler bands, a show that perhaps fittingly ended with a medley of Journey songs.

3. Expect a lot of soccer in the Daily Prep Report later this morning, as well as other news from the GHSA playoffs. We can tell you that the girls rolled into the AAAA Elite Eight with a 5-0 home win Tuesday night over Lakeside, while the Walton girls' home game against Northview was postponed by rain until 5 p.m. today. Come back to East Cobb Patch for the full report, including the playoff schedule for boys soccer.

4. On the government scene, Cobb County's Citizens Oversight Committee will meet at 9 a.m. at the government center at 100 Cherokee St. just off Marietta Square; East Cobb still is underrepresented after the county commissioners rejected Commissioner Bob Ott's last month. At 10 a.m. inside the square, the Cobb Immigrant Alliance will hold a vigil and news conference to opposed Gov. Nathan Deal's plan to sign H.B. 87; the rally comes a day after the most famous illegal immigrant in Kennesaw State University history, Jessica Colotl, learned she'll get another year in the United States to finish her studies. And the busy Cobb Board of Education will hold at 6 p.m. at the Central Office on Glover Street, then convene in another executive session to talk about personnel (i.e. the next superintendent).

5. Today's a big day at East Cobb Patch and across the national Patch network as we launch Local Voices on the home page. This will be the place for you to find links to the latest blog posts about East Cobb, both on our site and elsewhere on the Web. We hope this addition will broaden the conversation and make East Cobb Patch the place you go for discussion about anything and everything important to living here. If you want to be a conversation starter by launching your own blog on East Cobb Patch, email editor Wendy Parker for all the details. You can read more about how and why to be a Local Voice .