Two Floyd County residents say their county commissioners don’t want to comply with Georgia’s new voter integrity law, SB 202. Those commissioners’ defiance of Georgia law could ultimately cause ripple effects statewide, said Justin Seth and Terri Wright.
Read the full story
Officials at Curant, Inc., which owns pharmacies in Smyrna, Georgia have agreed to pay $4.6 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by charging the government higher-than-usual prices. This, according to a press release that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia published Monday.
Read the full story
A group of Georgia state legislators, all Democrats, have come forward to publicly oppose Buckhead residents’ efforts to secede from crime-plagued Atlanta. But the residents of Buckhead who want to separate have responded to those lawmakers.
Read the full story
Representative Barry Loudermilk (R-GA-11) said during a House Financial Services hearing this week that the government’s meddling in the economy and its out-of-control-spending cause the current economic disaster, but Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA-43) evidently disagreed. “Let’s stop pushing the policies that are causing the problems. Out-of-control spending is causing consumer prices to skyrocket. The massive expansion of entitlements has caused millions of people to stay at home and not go to work. Hence, the supply chain catastrophe that we are currently in. There is an all-time-record of unfilled jobs, and, by the way, an economist just came out and said the reconciliation bill will cost 8 million jobs,” Loudermilk said.
Read the full story
Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) officials announced this week that Georgia’s unemployment rate dropped three-tenths of a percentage point to 3.2 percent in September. GDOL officials said in an emailed press release that this is an all-time low for Georgia, dipping below the rate of 3.3 percent in January 2020. The number of employed people rose above 5 million for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, while the number of unemployed was reported at 161,786, the lowest level since June 2001.
Read the full story
Inflation could trigger tax increases in Georgia and 21 other states, according to a new analysis from the Tax Foundation, which is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. Tax brackets “fail to adjust for changes in consumer purchasing power,” according to The Tax Foundation’s report. The nonprofit described this phenomenon as “bracket creep.”
Read the full story
Georgia’s top election official on Thursday leveled a blistering attack on his longtime nemesis, arguing liberal voter activist Stacey Abrams has no business interjecting bogus “stolen election” claims into Virginia’s closely contested gubernatorial race to try to help Democrats win.
Read the full story
Lee County, Georgia will accept a more than $220 million investment from a Tennessee-based company with a reported history of ethics problems. That company, the Silicon Ranch Corporation, helps finance the construction of solar arrays. Silicon Ranch will invest those millions into the 250-megawatt (MWAC) DeSoto Solar Farm.
Read the full story
A Georgia pastor and tax preparer is in trouble with the law after federal authorities indicted him on charges of COVID-19 recovery assistance fraud. This, according to a press release that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia published this week.
Read the full story
Federal officials have sentenced a former Oconee County middle school teacher to prison after he pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. This, according to a press release that staff at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia published this week.
Read the full story
A panel of experts plan to release data Wednesday proving that unelected judges in Fulton County are dramatically more likely to release criminal defendants in unsecured judicial release. Elected judges, meanwhile, are far less likely to release criminal defendants, according to the statistics.
Read the full story
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said this week that he joined a 17-state effort to deter the Biden administration from threatening parents who express their views to school officials on issues regarding their children’s education. Carr announced this in an emailed press release.
Read the full story
Two separate things have likely enabled Georgia’s repeat violent offenders to go on breaking additional laws while, at the same time, forcing Atlanta’s crime rates to soar. Unelected judges in Georgia are the first cause. Former governor Nathan Deal’s criminal justice reforms are the second.
Read the full story
Meagan Hanson, a Republican running in a competitive race to unseat incumbent Georgia U.S. Representative Lucy McBath (D-GA-06), this week reported she’s raised more than $300,000 in the first quarter of her bid for Congress. This, according to an emailed press release from Hanson’s campaign.
Read the full story
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has urged Congress to reject “burdensome legislation that would increase fees on energy producers and hit American consumers with even greater price hikes as heating bills surge this winter.” Carr announced the news in an emailed press release Friday. He said he and 19 other state attorneys general sent a letter to Congress on Thursday.
Read the full story
U.S. Representative Jody Hice (R-GA-10) this week called on Georgia legislators to appoint a special counsel to investigate alleged election fraud during last year’s presidential election in Fulton County. Hice wants to defeat and replace Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Former U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed Hice for the position in March.
Read the full story
Buckhead, Georgia residents and businesses have contributed $1 million to support the initiative to create Buckhead City, members of the Buckhead City Committee said in an emailed press release Thursday.“The Buckhead City Committee expects to raise another million dollars before the end of this upcoming legislative session (April) to further advance Buckhead’s path to cityhood,” according to the press release.
Read the full story
Federal officials have sentenced former Georgia Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck to federal prison following his conviction for stealing more than $2.5 million from the Georgia Underwriting Association (GUA). This, according to a press release that staff at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia published Wednesday.
Read the full story
Henry County Superior Court Chief Judge Brian Amero has reportedly done away with a lawsuit that alleged election fraud in Fulton County, Georgia during last year’s presidential election. Members of the nonprofit VoterGA wanted to inspect Fulton County’s mail-in ballots. This, after four senior poll managers signed sworn affidavits indicating they handled counterfeit ballots during the Fulton County hand count audit.
Read the full story
Georgia taxpayers spent more than $1.1 million so that state Department of Labor (DOL) employees could eat meals — free of charge to them — during a 15-month period. This, according to a new report from the Office of the State Inspector General (OIG).
Read the full story
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday called upon members of the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Fulton County elections. This, following recent allegations that Fulton County shredded 300 municipal election-related applications in violation of state law. The Georgia Secretary of State’s office has already launched an investigation into the allegations, according to a press release.
Read the full story
Georgia’s September net tax collections totaled nearly $2.82 billion for an increase of $655 million, or 30.3 percent, compared to September of last year when net tax collections totaled $2.16 billion. This, according to a press release that Governor Brian Kemp emailed late last week.
Read the full story
U.S. Representative Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) said late last week that, because of the U.S. Senate’s debt limit increase deal, inflation is about to worsen and deliver even more hardships to middle- and low-income Americans. Carter made his remarks when he appeared on Newsmax.
Read the full story
Two Florida business executives pleaded guilty this week in the Southern District of Georgia to charges related to their roles in a scheme to recruit and hire foreign nationals who were not authorized to work in the United States. The executives did this to fill temporary housekeeping and food service positions and commit various other criminal immigration offenses for profit.
Read the full story
U.S. Representative Lucy McBath (D-GA-06) has filed legislation that would, if enacted into law, require that federal officials publish an annual report about school violence, with a heavy emphasis on racial and economic demographics. To file the bill, McBath paired with U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-23). They labeled the bill the School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act.
Read the full story
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced this week that Clarence Dean Alford, a former member of the Board of Regents, has pleaded guilty to racketeering. Alford pleaded guilty before Chief Superior Court Judge Robert F. Mumford.
Read the full story
When Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock sought Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats, both of which they won in special-election runoffs this January, there was little expectation they would match the centrism of fellow Peach State Democrats who held those seats before.
In 2017, when Ossoff initially ran unsuccessfully for Georgia’s 6th congressional district against Republican Karen Handel, Matthew Yglesias, then of the left-wing website Vox, observed that Ossoff’s message—support for abortion, aggressive anti-climate-change legislation and expanded healthcare programs—was “a lot more liberal than what you heard recently in Georgia.”
Read the full story
Georgia House Majority Caucus Whip Matt Hatchett (R-Dublin) on Thursday announced he has appointed his Majority Caucus Whip Team for the remainder of the 2021-2022 legislative term. This, according to a press release that Hatchett published on the Georgia General Assembly’s website.
Read the full story
Georgia U.S. Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA-09) this month took U.S. Transportation Secretary David Pekoske to task over illegal immigrants crossing over into the United States without having to produce a negative COVID-19 test. This goes on, Clyde said, while Americans and people with valid visas must produce a negative COVID-19 test to enter the United States.
Read the full story
Major League Baseball (MLB) is, according to one Washington Examiner commentator, “chasing after the Chinese market while pretending that places such as Atlanta are the locus of evil in the modern world.” Commentary Fellow Zachary Faria said in the publication this week that the MLB “is taking a page out of the NBA’s book when it comes to social justice politics.”
Read the full story
Former President Donald Trump says he’s not concerned by the prospect of his former advisers testifying before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
Lawmakers, Trump argued, should instead investigate the “insurrection” that changed last year’s election rules and committee chairman Bennie Thompson’s ties to a black separatist group whose members killed cops decades ago.
Read the full story
Georgia Department of Education (GADOE) officials announced Tuesday that they are giving $4.9 million in competitive grants to support school improvement efforts in 14 school districts and state charter schools. This, according to a press release that GADOE officials published on their website.
Read the full story
Meagan Hanson, a Republican running in a competitive race to unseat incumbent Georgia U.S. Representative Lucy McBath (D-GA-06), said Tuesday said that her opponent is snubbing questions about the new federal spending bill. “In a desperate attempt to avoid answering for her radical agenda, Congresswoman Lucy McBath spent the weekend dodging questions about her support for Nancy Pelosi’s trillion-dollar spending package,” Hanson said in an emailed press release.
Read the full story
One member of the Georgia General Assembly wants a statue of Clarence Thomas on the state capitol grounds, but one Democrat vigorously opposes the idea and the way she stated her opposition left some people shocked.
Georgia State Representative Donna McLeod (D-Lawrenceville) stated those remarks when she spoke to The Atlanta Journal Constitution late last week.
“I’d rather them keep a Confederate monument than a statue of [Supreme Court Justice] Clarence Thomas,” McLeod reportedly told the paper.
Read the full story
Two candidates have announced to run for the seat currently held by Georgia State Senator Burt Jones (R-Jackson). Jones announced in August that he will run for lieutenant governor.
Read the full story
A convicted felon in Tucson was indicted by a Grand Jury for illegally registering to vote and voting. According to Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, 45-year-old Kenneth Russell Nelson falsely stated on a voter registration form while incarcerated that he did not have a felony conviction, and then proceeded to vote in the 2018 primary and general election and the 2020 general election.
Nelson was convicted in 2007 of aggravated driving while under the influence of liquor while his license was suspended. He did not have his rights restored. He was arrested for first-degree murder in 2019 for killing his wife, which he admitted to. For the voter fraud, the Grand Jury indicted him on one count of false registration and three counts of illegal voting, comprising four felonies.
Read the full story
Five Democrats in the Georgia General Assembly said that the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) has created a program that could put them and other state legislators in legal jeopardy. GDOL spokeswoman Kersha Cartwright said Friday that this Legislative Portal Access pilot program gives legislators and members of their respective staffs access to certain unemployment information. Legislators may use this information to act on behalf of their constituents. But each constituent must grant his or her consent first, Cartwright said.
Read the full story
Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia have sentenced the owner of a Russian energy company to federal prison for his role in a scheme to evade U.S. national security laws. This, according to a press release that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia published this week.
Read the full story
Members of the Georgia General Assembly are scheduled to convene a three-week long special session starting November 3 where they will hold hearings and discuss whether Buckhead should incorporate as a municipality separate from Atlanta. This, according to a press release that members of the Buckhead City Committee emailed this week.
Read the full story
Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) officials have developed an ESSER funding dashboard that they say reveals to the public how the state’s school districts’ use federal COVID-19 relief funds. This, according to a press release that GaDOE officials emailed Wednesday.
Read the full story
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has scheduled a press conference Thursday alongside state Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey to update the public about their efforts to combat COVID-19. This, according to a press release that members of Kemp’s office emailed on Wednesday.
Read the full story
Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan (R-Cumming) and State Senator John Kennedy (R-Macon) have released a proposed draft of new Georgia Congressional Districts. Kennedy chairs the Georgia State Senate Redistricting and Reapportionment Committee.
Read the full story
Georgia U.S. Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA-12) has outlined what he said were alarming new numbers about how many people are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas. Allen made his remarks on the floor of the U.S. House late last week.
Read the full story
Georgia U.S. Senate Republican candidate Herschel Walker leads incumbent U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) by five points in a new poll, roughly 46 percent to 41 percent. This, according to a new poll that Creative Destruction (CD) Media published Saturday.
Read the full story
Top law enforcement officials in Georgia are calling for mandatory minimum sentences for offenders to reduce rising crime in the state.
Georgia Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Terry Norris told the Senate Public Safety Committee that a solid justice system with harsher sentencing for violent crimes could deter criminals.
Read the full story
Former U.S. President Donald Trump held a rally Saturday in Perry, where he introduced the candidates he wants Georgia voters to help elect in the 2022 elections. “One year from now Georgia will be a central battleground in our fight to rescue our beloved nation,” Trump told the audience.
Read the full story
Georgia has a lower percentage of unemployed residents now than it did immediately before COVID-19 arrived, with some locales, like Warner Robins, experiencing their lowest jobless rates ever.
In Sept. 2020, around six months after the pandemic hit, the small city just south of Macon had a 5.3-percent jobless rate. Two months ago, Warner Robins’s rate fell to 2.9 percent, the city never before having seen such a small fraction of its residents out of work.
Read the full story
Members of the Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) abused their powers and violated ethical and regulatory policies, according to a report that the Office of the State Inspector General (OIG) published this week. Georgia officials are supposed to distribute civil asset forfeiture funds to the state treasury. Officials with the DOR’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) broke state law when they didn’t remit state asset forfeiture funds to the state general fund. Former OSI Director Joshua Waites failed to properly remit $5.3 million collected via state asset forfeiture between July 1, 2015 to March 11, 2020, the date of Waites’ termination from his position, the report said.
Read the full story
In much of the country, public pension funding has been one of the most persistent public policy problems. For years, many state governments have failed to make necessary investments in their retirement system, resulting in funding gaps that increasingly present a looming reckoning for taxpayers.
According to a recent report published by The Pew Charitable Trusts, a public policy think tank, many states are now taking earnest measures to reduce their pension funding gap. These measures include increased contributions, cost reduction strategies, and more sophisticated pension management tools. States have also benefited from once-in-a-generation investment returns following the COVID-19 market crash in March 2020.
Read the full story
Democrats in the Georgia House of Representatives are scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday to discuss how state officials manage and secure the state’s prisons. Members of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus Committee on Crisis in Prisons are scheduled to hold the hearing at 1 p.m., Thursday, September 23, in Room 132 of the Georgia State Capitol.
Read the full story