Georgia State Rep. Phillip Singleton (R-Sharpsburg) has submitted legislation that he said will preserve female-only sports in Georgia. Specifically, Singleton’s bill would outlaw schools from allowing students whose gender is male from participating in an athletic program designed for females.
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A recent report found Atlanta’s budget deficit would cost each of the city’s 500,000 residents $1,900 to balance, representing the 26th-lowest tax burden among the 75 most-populous cities in the U.S.
Truth in Accounting (TIA) released its fifth annual Financial State of the Cities analysis last week, examining the financial health of 75 of America’s most-populous cities and calculating how much each resident would have to pay to cover all of their city’s bills.
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Georgia State Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-Woodstock) this week introduced Voter ID legislation that she said would prohibit people from using certain types of identification for in-person voting. That bill, HB 228, would, if enacted into law, require Georgia residents who are not U.S. citizens to have “BEARER NOT A U.S. CITIZEN — NOT VOTER ID” printed on their licenses, permits and/or identification cards. People who present a license, permit, and ID with this information on it could not present them to a poll worker to vote, according to Byrd’s legislation.
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Seven members of the Georgia General Assembly have filed a bill that would call on members of the State Election Board to appoint a chief elections assistance officer. According to the language of the bill, this person would work for the secretary of state to help manage and oversee elections.
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Georgia State Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) has introduced seven bills that he said will reform Georgia’s election system. Mullis did not return The Georgia Star News’ request for comment Wednesday.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday proposed a plan that he said will “recruit, prepare, mentor, and retain the best educators” and give teachers more power to influence the state board of education. Kemp unveiled his proposal at the Georgia State Capitol. Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R-Cumming) and Speaker Pro-Tempore Jan Jones (R-Milton) stood alongside Kemp to show their support.
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The people who work for Georgia’s film and television studios are not only working again but working more frequently than their counterparts at competing studios in California and the United Kingdom. That’s because officials in Georgia’s state government have a more lenient COVID-19 policy. Those studios opened back up not long after the start of the pandemic.
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Sixteen Democrats in the Georgia General Assembly want to add an amendment to the state constitution that would mandate workers have a Family Medical Leave Fund. The Georgia General Assembly’s website identifies State Sen. Gloria Butler (D-Stone Mountain) as the primary sponsor.
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Members of the Georgia General Assembly this week proposed a bill that would, if enacted into law, give certain legislators enough power to audit up to five of the state’s tax credit programs. State Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell) is sponsoring the bill, along with 16 other state legislators.
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Georgia residents who vote absentee in future elections would have to produce photocopies of their identification before they could vote, according to a bill that state legislators will soon consider. State Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R-Dallas), the sponsor, did not return The Georgia Star News’ request for comment Friday.
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The Georgia House approved changes Thursday to the state’s fiscal year 2021 spending plan.
The House voted 149-20 to approve a 2.5% increase – or $654 million more – in spending for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends June 30.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he entered into the controversial Compromise Settlement Agreement and Release with Stacey Abrams because members of the Georgia Attorney General’s Office Chris Carr recommended he do so. In a letter dated January 6, Raffensperger told former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) that the agreement strengthened Georgia’s signature verification system.
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The Medical Center of Elberton has been barred temporarily from administering COVID-19 vaccines after mistakenly vaccinating teachers and other school staff without state permission. The medical center reportedly vaccinated around 40 percent of the Elbert County School District employees.
For that, the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) suspended the medical center from receiving vaccine supplies for 6 months.
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will allow Georgia to use technology that reportedly kills over 98 percent of airborne COVID-19 particles. The emergency exemption request was approved under Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
The antiviral air treatment, Grignard Pure, is composed of Triethylene Glycol (TEG) vapor and nanoparticles that permeate and kill the COVID-19 virus particles by disrupting the protein and membrane structures. The EPA confirmed prior independent lab reports that the treatment kills over 98 percent of COVID-19 particles.
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Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R-Cumming) said this week he wants legislators to discuss “serious, meaningful election reform” during the current legislative session, and he suggested state officials require a photo ID if people vote absentee. Duncan, during a press conference at the Georgia State Capital in Atlanta, also pitched the idea of a statewide grand jury to monitor possible election fraud.
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A group of Democratic lawmakers in Georgia wants more state funding for local jails to improve mental health services and accountability.
Reps. Sandra Scott, D-Rex; Kim Schofield, D-Atlanta; and David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, held Monday the first of a series of town hall meetings focused on jail reform.
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A high-ranking member of the Georgia State Senate will vice chair the state’s Senate Transportation Committee, which recently lost State Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) as chairman after he questioned alleged irregularities in the state’s November 2020 elections. State Senate Majority Whip Steve Gooch will vice chair the State Senate Transportation Committee. This, according to a press release that members of the Georgia General Assembly published Tuesday. The press release went on to say that Gooch will expand beyond his usual duties as majority whip to serve on other State Senate committees.
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Despite reports of individuals engaging in “vaccine tourism,” state officials said they won’t be checking residency before administering COVID-19 vaccines. In a press conference on Tuesday, Dr. Kathleen Toomey responded to a reporter’s inquiry about individuals admitting they were traveling from out of state to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Georgia.
“I think it’s important that everybody know: we’re not going to be checking driver’s licenses, we’re not going to police this process. Does that mean somebody may slip in from out of state? Possibly,” stated Toomey. “I think it’s important that we don’t want to be policemen. We want to encourage as much vaccination as we can.”
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Two Georgia state legislators who lost their chairmanships after they questioned the results of the last presidential election can’t say if their colleagues have enough willpower to fix the state’s alleged election integrity problems. State Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) and State Sen. Burt Jones (R-Jackson) talked to The Georgia Star News Monday. Both men said they’ve noticed that some of the same state leaders who stifled their efforts to have a special session to address voter irregularities late last year have now proposed their own reforms.
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U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) didn’t cite Georgia by name, but he said Sunday that officials in different states may have enabled voting irregularities to occur last year. And if that did happen then Paul said he wants to help repair the damage.
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Republican officials at the Georgia State Capital want to require photo ID for absentee ballots in the state. This, according to a new report on the Atlanta-based WABE. The station is affiliated with National Public Radio.
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The Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) is asking for an additional $1 million to stimulate the state’s hard-hit tourism industry.
GDEcD Commissioner Pat Wilson told lawmakers Friday the state has lost billions of tourism dollars and has seen massive industry job loss because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA-09) said this week that election season is over in Georgia and government officials must now secure the integrity of how people vote. Clyde submitted a column to The Washington Examiner and said state-level officials, during this year’s session of the Georgia General Assembly, are prioritizing the issue of voter integrity. He also seemed to criticize Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for how he managed last year’s elections.
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The Georgia House of Representatives recognized 8 new committee chairmen, with House Democrats earning one chair. State Representative Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) was appointed to chair the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Overview Committee (MARTOC), a statutory body overseeing the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) budget.
Oliver was the only Democrat appointed to chair a committee; no Democrats chair any of the subcommittees or special committees either. MARTOC’s designation as a joint committee means that it doesn’t handle legislation, and members don’t vote with the MARTA Board of Directors.
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U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA-05) this month submitted a resolution that would, if enacted, prohibit former U.S. President Donald Trump from entering the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The resolution directs that the U.S. Capitol Police and other entities prohibit Trump from entering the U.S. Capitol at any time after he left office.
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Activists and legislators are calling for Gwinnett County Board of Registrations and Elections Chair Alice O’Lenick to resign for supporting election law changes. O’Lenick wanted to limit no-excuse absentee voting to the elderly and infirm, ban absentee ballot drop boxes, and expand early voting to last 21 days and be open on the weekends.
O’Lenick’s proposals incited negative responses from a variety of civil rights and activist groups, as well as a coalition of Democratic state legislators. Amongst the groups were The Lincoln Project, Fair Fight Action, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta, Georgia American Federation of Labor and Congress of Individual Organizations (AFL-CIO), Georgia Equality, and Voto Latino.
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Georgia’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic should be strong and swift, the state’s fiscal economist said Tuesday.
Georgia’s economy has been supported by federal aid, a recovering job market and business owners’ improvisation, state economist Jeffrey Dorfman told the House and Senate appropriations committees during a joint meeting Tuesday.
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The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) banned all “hate speech” by its members – not just in members’ professional capacity, but in every aspect of their lives. The policy changes were approved by the NAR Board of Directors during a meeting on November 13.
The policy on hate speech encompasses an array of broad issues: “harassing speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” Collectively, these speech-related issues fall under what the NAR terms “public trust,” which also includes misappropriation of client or customer funds, or property and fraud that causes significant economic harm.
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A judgment allowing or prohibiting the inspection of Fulton County’s mail-in ballots may occur as early as next week. The plaintiffs, organized by the election integrity organization Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia (VoterGA), have been engaged in litigation for nearly a month to obtain an inspection of those ballots.
VoterGA had anticipated receiving a ruling allowing them to inspect the county’s mail-in ballots during their last hearing on January 15. However, after three hours debating the county’s compliance with open records requests concerning the mail-in ballots, akin to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requirements, Chief Judge Brian Amero decided to only address that issue.
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Six Georgia state representatives put forward a resolution last week asking that members of the U.S. Congress create a formal commission to study whether the government should provide reparations for slavery. “The racial bigotry fed by slavery did not end with slavery or with segregation. And many of the issues that still trouble America have roots in the bitter experience of other times. But however long the journey, our destiny is set: liberty and justice for all,” according to the language of the resolution.
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Georgia is one of several states that harvest blueberries, but U.S. Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA-08) said this week that other nations’ unfair trade practices have harmed all of America’s blueberry growers. Scott and other members of Congress want members of the International Trade Commission to help.
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Twitter suspended Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from her personal account temporarily on Sunday. The suspension occurred shortly after Greene posted allegations that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Gabriel Sterling were to blame for potential voter fraud.
Greene had issued a response to Sterling’s tweet which claimed that Greene, Doug Collins, and President Donald Trump were to blame for a significant drop-off in Republican turnout. Just over 270,000 less Republicans voted in the runoff elections, as compared to nearly 166,000 less Democrats.
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Two upcoming special elections scheduled next month will result in a new state representative and chief prosecutor. The race for House District 90 – which encompasses DeKalb, Henry, and Rockdale counties – will feature a slate of 7 Democratic candidates. The Griffin Judicial Circuit District Attorney race is bipartisan and much smaller, featuring only two candidates.
The list of candidates on the ballot for the state representative seat are exclusively Democratic because of the circumstances surrounding the previous representative’s departure from office. Representative Pam Stephenson (D-DeCatur) resigned last September due to medical issues; she’d served as representative for about 15 years. Her daughter, Taureaun Stephenson, acted as her power of attorney and submitted a resignation letter to House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge). The next week, Governor Brian Kemp accepted her resignation.
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Members of the Georgia House of Representatives have submitted a resolution that asks the U.S. Congress “to reject any and all actions to increase the number of justices on the United States Supreme Court.” Staff for U.S. Sen.-elect Jon Ossoff and U.S. Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock, both Democrats scheduled to soon represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate, did not return The Georgia Star News’ requests for comment on the matter.
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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA-14) said this week that she is cosponsoring the Life at Conception Act and the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Greene said this in a press release that members of her staff emailed Friday.
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Georgia State Rep. Wes Cantrell (R-Woodstock) has introduced a bill that, if enacted into law, would offer greater school choice for parents through Educational Scholarship Accounts. Parents could take these ESA’s and use them for private educational opportunities instead of public education funds.
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After Thursday’s annual State of the State speech by Gov. Brian Kemp (R), which heavily focused on unity and Georgia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Peach State’s top Democrat lawmaker rejected Kemp outrightly.
“Do I think the governor is going to be more conciliatory? No. No I do not,” state House Minority Leader James Beverly (D-GA-143) told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “His policies have shown who he is.”
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp delivered an optimistic State of the State address Thursday and proposed what he said were new ways for state officials to invest taxpayer money to counteract the effects of COVID-19. At one point in his speech, the governor apparently referred to the November 2020 elections and alleged voter fraud and other voter irregularities.
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State Representative Dar’shun Kendrick (D-Lithonia) introduced five bills that are aimed at increasing “Black wealth.” The bills propose racial compositions on Georgia corporations receiving state tax credits; reinstatement of the “Angel Investor” tax credit and qualifying historically Black colleges and universities (HCBU) as eligible; tax credits for HBCU entrepreneurship programs; racially diversify all boards, commissions, councils, or committees to reflect the state’s demographics; and annual reports on wealth within certain demographics.
In a press release, Kendrick claimed that Black communities are systemically marginalized within the economy. She added that the pandemic has only compounded the matter.
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Georgia State Rep. Josh Bonner (R-Fayetteville) has put forward a bill in the Georgia General Assembly that, if enacted into law, would grant greater free speech rights to students at the state’s institutions of higher learning. Bonner named the bill the Forming Open and Robust University Minds (FORUM) Act.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is scheduled to deliver the 2021 State of the State address at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time today at the Georgia House of Representatives.
This, according to a press release that Kemp’s staff emailed Wednesday.
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A Georgia Gwinnett College student appeared before the Supreme Court on Tuesday to defend free speech on campuses. The student, Chike Uzuegbunam, was prohibited by campus officials from speaking about the Christian faith on campus twice in 2016, following alleged complaints from other students.
A day before the Supreme Court hearing, Uzuegbunam published an opinion piece recounting his experience at the college and throughout the subsequent court hearings. Uzuegbunam explained that he was barred from passing out fliers and discussing his faith with fellow students publicly. According to his account, he was having one-on-one conversations with students when he was stopped by a campus official and told he needed to file a request for a speech zone.
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Georgia State Rep. Sandra Scott (D-Rex) has put forward separate bills that would, if enacted, require that law enforcement officers wear body cameras on-the-job. Law enforcement officers might also have to submit to a citizen review board. Members of such a board would review law enforcement officers’ actions while those officers served in the line of duty. Scott would also strip law enforcement officers of certain legal immunities they have as they do their jobs and make them liable to a lawsuit or other civil liability.
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The Georgia House Education Committee introduced legislation to fund education savings accounts for qualifying parents. House Bill 60, or the “Georgia Educational Scholarship Act,” proposes granting certain state educational funds to parents directly rather than schools.
The bill would allow students with circumstances including poverty, foster care, active duty military parent(s), disability, bullying, or mandated distance learning to apply certain state educational funds to attend the participating school of their choice.
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ATLANTA, Georgia – Two Georgia state senators who said they wanted to fight for the state’s election integrity after the November 2020 presidential election learned Tuesday they will no chair committees that they previously presided over. State Sen. Burt Jones (R-Jackson) will no longer chair the Committee on Insurance and Labor. State Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) no longer oversees that body’s Transportation Committee.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called President Trump’s remarks a “threat” during a 60 Minutes interview aired Monday. The interview also included previous Voting System Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling, currently the Secretary of State’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.
Raffensperger was referring to a secretly-recorded, leaked call in which the President questioned the merits of Georgia’s elections systems, voter fraud allegations, and election irregularities. At several points, Trump criticized Raffensperger for stating that there wasn’t any evidence of criminality within the 2020 general election. The President also likened Raffensperger’s unwillingness to assign credibility to election fraud claims with criminal activity.
Raffensperger was referring to a secretly-recorded, leaked call in which the President questioned the merits of Georgia’s elections systems, voter fraud allegations, and election irregularities. At several points, Trump criticized Raffensperger for stating that there wasn’t any evidence of criminality within the 2020 general election. The President also likened Raffensperger’s unwillingness to assign credibility to election fraud claims with criminal activity.
District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez implemented over 40 new policy changes posing alternative, more progressive forms of prosecution. In a lengthy memorandum titled “Fairness and Equity in the Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Office,” Gonzalez stated that the changes would take effect immediately.
Gonzalez cited that these efforts would end their circuit’s “participation in mass incarceration and the school to prison pipeline.”
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The Georgia General Assembly returned to session Monday for the first time since June 2020 with coronavirus measures in place.
Legislators were required to observe COVID-19 restrictions including wearing masks and social distancing, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Legislators will be tested twice a week for COVID-19, said State Senator Mike Dugan (R-Carrollton), the Republican Senate leader.
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The Georgia House Democratic Caucus Subcommittee on COVID-19 requested that Governor Brian Kemp implement more emergency regulations to address the new COVID-19 strain. Subcommittee members are State Representatives Rhonda Burnough (D-Riverdale), Viola Davis, (D-Stone Mountain), Shelly Hutchinson (D-Snellville), Donna McLeod (D-Lawrenceville), Sandra Scott (D-Rex), and Kim Schofieeld (D-Atlanta).
The letter requested that Kemp expand the emergency orders to require everyone to either shelter-in-place, or do a combination of the following: cease all in-person schooling; further limit gatherings in bars, clubs, and restaurants; impose a statewide mask mandate; and establish moratoriums on evictions and utility cutoffs for all of this upcoming year.
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A Georgia lawmaker is pushing for more transparency in tax-incentive proposals for developers ahead of the upcoming legislative session.
Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, has pre-filed a legislative package that would allow local governments and school systems to be involved in the development of annexation and tax-abatement plans.
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