Georgia Gov. Kemp Files Supreme Court Amicus Brief in Chevron Case

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has filed an amicus brief in a highly visible U.S. Supreme Court case that could overturn a standing practice that gives federal agencies the power to interpret statutes.

Kemp, a Republican, filed his brief in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which seeks to overturn the so-called Chevron deference established by the 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. It compels federal judges to defer to federal agencies’ interpretations in “ambiguous situations” as long as the interpretation is “reasonable.”

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Elderly Lowe’s Employee Initially Fired for Attempting to Stop Active Robbery Now Reinstated

A 68-year-old woman who was fired from her job at Lowe’s for attempting to stop an active robbery has been reinstated, according to a statement by a Lowe’s spokesperson.

Last month, according to RDP, three subjects went inside the Lowe’s store in Rincon, loaded multiple items into shopping carts, and exited the store without paying for the merchandise.

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Rudy Giuliani Concedes to Making ‘False’ and ‘Defamatory’ Statements About Georgia Election Workers

Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani concedes that he made “false” and “defamatory” statements about two Georgia election workers who filed a lawsuit against him in an effort to resolve the case and to satisfy a judge who has considered issuing sanctions against the former New York City mayor.

The court document filed late Tuesday evening states that Giuliani “does not contest” four allegations made in a defamation case brought by Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss against the former Trump attorney and the conservative outlet One America News Network.

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U.S. Attorney’s Office in Georgia Organizes Gang and Violence Prevention Program for SROs in Metro-Atlanta Schools

The Northern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney’s Office organized an initiative to provide law enforcement training for more than 40 police officers from school systems in the northern district of Georgia to prevent and reduce delinquency, youth violence, and gang membership.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office partnered with the Georgia Alliance for School Resource Officers and Educators, the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, and the Georgia Gang Investigators Association to provide the officers with Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.).

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Georgia Removes 95,000 Patients as Medicaid Eligibility Returns to Pre-COVID Standards

State officials have removed more than 95,000 from Georgia’s Medicaid rolls, but one Georgia group says the move merely returns the program to how it was administered for its first 50 years.

State officials said that of the 95,578 who lost coverage, 89,168 were removed because of “a lack of information received … to make an eligibility determination.” The state indicated it has information that more than 20,000 of those “procedurally terminated” would not have been eligible for an extension.

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State Lawmaker: State Unlikely to Take Up Atlanta’s Grade Crossing Request

Atlanta officials want state lawmakers to punish railroads for blocking grade crossings, but a leading state lawmaker says there is nothing the state can do.

The Atlanta City Council’s Transportation Committee passed a measure to advocate for punishing railroads that block grade crossings for prolonged periods. The measure, which the city council will consider the measure during its Aug. 7 meeting, calls on the Georgia General Assembly and Congress to pass legislation limiting how long freight trains can block a grade crossing.

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Georgia Works to Improve Voter Rolls as State Exposes Fulton County 2020 Election Audit Errors

As more issues arise from the 2020 presidential election in Fulton County, Georgia is taking steps to better secure its future elections through cleaning its voter rolls.

According to state investigators, the county’s audit of the most recent presidential election included multiple errors but the overall outcome of the audit did not change.

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Georgia Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Trump Motion to Halt Fulton County DA’s Investigation

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday unanimously rejected a bid from former President Donald Trump’s legal team to block an investigation from Fulton Country District Attorney Fani Willis into his efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results in the Peach State.

Trump’s team filed the request on Friday, after previously filing a similar bid in the Fulton County Superior Court, The Hill reported. That the lower court has yet to decide the matter formed the basis of the Supreme Court’s refusal.

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Georgia Supreme Court Declines to Hear Appeal of Rivian Project’s Bond Agreement

Georgia’s Supreme Court has denied a request to hear an appeal challenging the bond agreement state officials used to lure a controversial electric vehicle manufacturing project to the state.

At issue is a deal the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton and Walton struck to give $1.5 billion in incentives to electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian Automotive. The company is building a $5 billion plant in Morgan and Newton counties.

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Governor Kemp Appoints New Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation

Governor Brian Kemp appointed Chris Hosey to serve as Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

“Chris has dedicated his career to protecting the people of our state as a proud member of law enforcement,” Kemp said in a Saturday statement. “With over 35 years of experience at the GBI, he brings a wealth of institutional knowledge and skill to this role. I’m confident he will bring the same level of commitment to the job that he has shown throughout his years of service.”

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Atlanta City Council Wants Action on Blocked Grade Crossings

An Atlanta City Council committee has passed a measure to advocate for punishing railroads that block grade crossings for prolonged periods, the latest salvo in an ongoing dispute between railroads and communities nationwide.

The Atlanta measure calls on the Georgia General Assembly and Congress to pass legislation limiting how long freight trains can block a grade crossing.

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Georgia Senator Introduces Bill Targeting Fentanyl Trafficking

A U.S. senator from Georgia is introducing legislation to crack down on fentanyl trafficking.

On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, announced the Fentanyl Trafficking Prevention Act, which could slap social media companies with criminal penalties of up to $10 million for facilitating the illicit distribution or dispensing of cocaine, methamphetamine, opioids and synthetic opioids. According to a news release from Ossoff’s office, these actions already run afoul of service providers’ terms of service.

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Georgia Republican Party Names Its Next Executive Director

Chairman Josh McKoon appointed Travis Bowden on Wednesday as the new executive director of the Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP).

“With the news that our Executive Director Ryan Caudelle would be leaving the Georgia Republican Party for a new and exciting opportunity in the conservative movement, I was faced with quickly identifying and hiring an Executive Director who could keep the positive momentum we have achieved in the last 31 days going and to accelerate initiatives our leadership intends to roll out in 2023,” McKoon said in a statement. “I am excited to announce I found that Executive Director and am appointing longtime grassroots activist, state committee member, and political consultant Travis Bowden to fill this important role.”

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Kia Announces Upgrade, Jobs at Georgia Plant

Kia plans to spend more than $200 million to accommodate the assembly of its new electric SUV at its west Georgia facility.

State officials said the project will create roughly 200 new jobs at Kia’s West Point plant, Kia Corporation’s first manufacturing site in North America. When assembly of the EV9 starts in the second quarter of 2024, it will be the fifth model to be assembled at Kia Georgia.

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Georgia’s Education Tax Credit Could Save the State Millions: Audit

Georgia’s Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit (QEEC) could save the state and local school districts millions of dollars in expenses.

However, the Georgia Department of Audits & Accounts could not determine the exact fiscal impact because the “switcher rate” — the number of scholarship recipients who would have attended a public school without a Student Scholarship Organizations scholarship — is unknown.

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Georgia Lawmaker Wants Tougher Penalties for Setting Fire to Police Vehicles

A Georgia lawmaker wants to increase the penalties for anyone who sets a law enforcement vehicle on fire.

Rep. Deborah Silcox, R-Sandy Springs, announced a renewed push for House Bill 500 when lawmakers return in January. The announcement comes after vandals set fire to law enforcement motorcycles parked at an Atlanta Police Department facility on Southside Industrial Parkway that is home to the Atlanta Police Training Academy and its special operations precinct.

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Fulton County GOP Sues After Candidate to Election Board Who Questioned Voter Rolls Was Rejected

The Fulton County GOP is suing the county Board of Commissioners for rejecting its nominee to an elections board, alleging he was not appointed for having previously raised concerns about voter rolls.

Fulton’s Republican Party says county law requires the seven-member board to appoint party nominees to Fulton’s Board of Registration and Elections if they meet all the qualifications. And not appointing such a nominee the board is violating the law, according to the lawsuit. 

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Georgia Composite Medical Board Has ‘Foot Back on the Gas,’ Head Says

The head of the Georgia Composite Medical Board says the agency has its “foot back on the gas” and is progressing on a series of recommendations in a follow-up state audit.

A recent finding from the Georgia Department of Audits & Accounts found that while the agency has addressed some shortcomings uncovered in a November 2020 audit, it has not progressed on others, including performing mandatory background checks for general physician licensure applicants.

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Atlanta’s Fed Chief Raphael Bostic: ‘Pandemic-Related Effects on the Economy Have Not Fully Unwound’

The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta says the cumulative effects of monetary policy adjustments are showing signs of working.

The Federal Open Market Committee recently voted to maintain the 5 percent to 5.25 percent federal funds rate. While the FOMC’s Summary of Economic Projections “are not true forecasts in the statistical sense” or “commitments to follow a particular course of action,” financial market watchers view these projections as indicators of economic conditions, Raphael Bostic, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said.

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Georgia’s Gov. Kemp Transfers Millions for Water Wars Fight, Public Safety

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has transferred more than $8.9 million from the Governor’s Emergency Fund to several state agencies, including millions for public safety and a decades-long fight over water.

As part of the allocation, Kemp, a Republican, is sending $5.7 million to cover costs — including counsel fees and litigation expenses — stemming from a long-standing dispute over water use in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River and the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River basins.

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Second Week of Disbarment Trial of Trump Attorney John Eastman Wraps Up

The second week of the disbarment trial of Trump attorney and constitutional scholar John Eastman concluded Friday, with testimony from the State Bar of California’s (SBC) expert witnesses Justin Grimmer and Jonathan Brater, director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections (MBE). Grimmer is a political science professor at Stanford.

Much of SBC attorney Duncan Carling’s questions to Grimmer consisted of asking him to debunk claims of election fraud, prompting First Amendment attorney Mark Fitzgibbons to tweet, “Am I wrong, but isn’t this bizarre CA Bar trial of Trump lawyer Dr John Eastman hearing more evidence than all the pre-Jan 6 election litigation challenges combined?” Analyzing election fraud claims did not come up in the 2020 election cases, since the judges dismissed them on technicalities without getting to the merits.

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Georgia Lawmakers Begin Studying State Trooper Recruitment, Retention

A Georgia House working group is exploring how the state can attract and retain state troopers, and it could lead to additional state funding for increased compensation.

“Ultimately, your work should allow us to increase the number of state patrol troopers keeping our highways and our communities safe,” State House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said during a Tuesday House Working Group on Public Safety meeting. “…This is not a simple issue; it’s multifaceted. It’s going to take some really good thought and some inspection and contemplation to come up with solutions and bring back to us.”

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Atlanta Police Arrest Person Accused of Throwing Spoiled Meat at Officers During Protest

One individual was arrested for throwing spoiled meat at Atlanta police officers during a protest against the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center on Wednesday, the Atlanta Police Department (APD) announced in a press release.

The Atlanta City Council approved the training center in September 2021, and it has been a source of controversy ever since.

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Second Week of Disbarment Trial of Trump Attorney John Eastman Resumes

The second week of the State Bar of California’s (SBC) disbarment trial against Trump attorney John Eastman resumed on Thursday, after a brief break due to one of the attorneys becoming sick. Throughout much of the day, SBC attorney Duncan Carling grilled Eastman about his allegations of illegal activity occurring in the 2020 election.

Carling repeated many of Eastman’s claims from the pleadings he filed in cases like Trump v. Raffensperger, prompting First Amendment attorney Mark Fitzgibbons to tweet, “The CA Bar lawyer is actually doing more to convince us the election illegalities merited what Prof Eastman recommended to his client. Courts rejecting cases on standing without EVER hearing evidence did a terrible injustice to the Constitution, and disenfranchised voters.” 

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