Banks Takes Heat; Oudin Wins

1. Today will be cooler and less humid with a high of about 89 and an overnight low around 65, the National Weather Service says, but there is a chance of severe thunderstorms popping up in the afternoon and evening. We also have our first Code Orange smog alert in a while.

2. The is meeting twice today, first in a work session at 1:30 p.m. to go over the , which goes into effect Oct. 1, and again in a regular session at 7 p.m. Both meetings are at 100 Cherokee St. East Cobb Patch will have live coverage of the night meeting.

3. Today’s meetings come a day after the commissioners joined the for a lunch meeting with the county’s legislative delegation in Atlanta to discuss new county voting districts and the Transportation SPLOST. According to the Marietta Daily Journal, East Cobb school board member David Banks took a lot of heat during that meeting for pushing instead of working with the rest of the board on .

4. East Cobb teen tennis star , trying to return to her form of two years ago, won her first-round match at the Texas Tennis Open on Monday, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. She took the first set in a tiebreaker, then won when her opponent, Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, quit with a back injury. It was the second injury break of the tournament for Oudin: She was supposed to play top seed Shuai Peng, but Peng pulled out with a hip injury.

5. In sports closer to home, powerful varsity volleyball team plays at River Ridge in Woodstock at 4:30 p.m., and the softball team is home against East Paulding (JV at 5:30 p.m., varsity at 7). varsity volleyball team plays Blessed Trinity and Marist at Marist in Brookhaven, starting at 7 p.m., and the school will hold an informational meeting at 7:30 p.m. about playing lacrosse in the spring. The volleyball team travels to Milton to play Milton and Alpharetta, starting at 5 p.m.