On July 16, 1790, Congress declared Washington, DC the new capital city.
Georgia Congressman Carl Vinson set a new record for longevity in office on July 16, 1963, having served 48 years, 8 months, and 12 days since his election in 1914. Vinson’s record held until 1992 and his tenure is now sixth-longest.
On July 16, 1914, Asa Griggs Candler, retired President of Coca-Cola, wrote his brother Warren, who was a Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, a letter offering one million dollars and 72 acres of land in Atlanta for the church to establish a new university in the East.
The United States performed the first test of an atomic bomb on July 16, 1945 at the Trinity site in New Mexico.
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the project, watched the mushroom cloud rise into the New Mexico sky. “Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds,” he uttered, reciting a passage from an ancient Hindu text.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Governor Brian Kemp yesterday issued Executive Order 07.15.20.01, continuing the Public Health State of Emergency through July 31, 2020 at 11:59 PM.
Kemp’s executive order issued Wednesday prevents local governments from enforcing mandatory face covering orders that are more restrictive than the current statewide order. The move effectively voided orders issued by at least 15 local governments across the state, according to The Associated Press.
Candice Broce, a spokesperson for the governor, doubled down on the governor’s stance that local orders are “unenforceable.”
“Previous executive orders – and now this order – state no local action can be more or less restrictive than ours. We have explained that local mask mandates are unenforceable. The Governor continues to strongly encourage Georgians to wear masks in public,” Broce tweeted.
The 41-page order is mostly a revised extension of guidelines the governor had put in place since the start of the coronavirus pandemic with the addition of the new language regarding mask mandates.
The executive order reads in part:
“State, county, or municipal law, order, ordinance, rule, or regulation that requires persons to wear face coverings, masks, face shields, or any other Personal Protective Equipment while in places of public accommodation or on public property are suspended to the extent that they are more restrictive than this Executive Order.”
The rate of new tests that are positive for the disease is soaring, an indication that experts say suggests the spread of the disease — and not increased testing — is the culprit. During the week of May 24, state public health officials reported the rate of positive tests was about 6% over the course of seven days. Last week, the positivity rate was more than 13%, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of state data shows.
Even though the new wave of COVID-19 patients tends to be younger and less sick, they are filling hospital beds at a rapid clip. Hospitalizations topped Georgia’s prior peak in April after the Fourth of July weekend. Shares of open critical care beds in regions surrounding Athens, Dublin, Macon, Marietta, Savannah and Tifton have dipped into the single digits. Only one was left in Dublin, according to the most recent figures available.
Governor Kemp also announced a partnership with Piedmont Healthcare to provide more hospital beds, according to a press release.
Today Governor Brian P. Kemp joined Kevin Brown, President and CEO of Piedmont Healthcare, to announce a partnership to provide additional hospital bed surge capacity to treat COVID-19 patients in Georgia at the Marcus Tower of the Piedmont Atlanta campus.
“I’m very grateful to Kevin Brown and the entire Piedmont Healthcare team for their willingness to partner with the state of Georgia and provide this critical resource to patients and surrounding hospitals,” said Governor Kemp. “These hospital beds will provide additional surge capacity for healthcare facilities in metro-Atlanta and ensure COVID-19 patients receive the essential care they need.”
The partnership includes initial usage of 62 beds, with the capability to scale up based on demand.
“Our mission as a nonprofit healthcare system is to serve patients in our communities and the new Marcus Tower will incorporate the latest technology and larger patient rooms to provide for enhanced care, among numerous other benefits,” said Piedmont Healthcare President and CEO Kevin Brown. “Opening the tower early will help to meet the needs of our communities – and all Georgians – and provide the highest quality of care possible.”
The state will leverage existing medical staffing contracts to provide necessary personnel to Piedmont Atlanta throughout the usage of the facility. This facility is expected to be fully operational within the next week.
Prior to today’s announcement, Governor Kemp joined Piedmont Healthcare staff for a tour of the Marcus Tower.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson made his thoughts clear, according to the Savannah Morning News.
“It is officially official,” Johnson wrote. “Governor Kemp does not give a damn about us. Every man and woman for himself/herself. Ignore the science and survive the best you can.
“In #Savannah, we will continue to keep the faith and follow the science. Masks will continue to be available!”
“My sense of the (Glynn County Commission) is they would look favorably upon a mandate to wear the mask,” said Mike Browning, commission chairman. “The problem is Gov. (Brian) Kemp has taken the ability to mandate things from us.”
“We have some issues other places don’t have, i.e. a beach,” said commission vice chairman Bill Brunson. “Maybe it would have prevented some of this uptick, and more control for short-term rentals could have been something we did locally that could have slowed it down.”
“The governor has come out very strongly and said it’s unenforceable,” Browning said. “If we wrote citations (and) people went to court, the judge is going to throw them out.”
That’s not to say Kemp has ignored the issue. He stopped in Brunswick last week on a fly-around tour of the state to encourage mask-wearing. Kemp and his staff pushed for the public to wear them regularly, but so far the governor has stopped short of mandating it.
“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone and I hate that the governor has to deal with it, but we’re all big people,” Browning said. “Everyone volunteered to run for office and he decided he was going to deal with this. I don’t think it’s a state vs. local matter as much as he’s decided he’s going to call the shots.”
From the Associated Press via the Macon Telegraph:
Kemp’s new order also bans local governments from requiring masks on public property, which void requirements that some governments have imposed for citizens to wear masks inside city and county buildings.
Local officials and Democrats had argued cities and counties had the power to move ahead because Kemp hadn’t specifically banned mask orders. His orders barred local governments from enacting any coronavirus restrictions beyond his orders and he called the local mask mandates “legally unenforceable.”
The Republican governor previously announced plans to reopen an overflow hospital at the mammoth Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms accused President Trump of breaking the unenforceable Atlanta executive order, according to the Albany Herald.
Trump was spotted not wearing a mask during his visit to Atlanta on Wednesday, and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” that Trump broke the law. Hartsfield-Jackson airport is owned and operated by the city of Atlanta and thus included in her executive order requiring masks, Bottoms said.
When asked for a response, the White House did not directly address Bottoms’ accusation and said Trump was instead following CDC guidance.
Bottoms, one of the top prospects to be presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, said during the interview with Blitzer that she wasn’t shocked by Trump’s decision not to wear a mask.
“So by not having on a mask, President Trump did violate law in the city of Atlanta, but I am somehow not surprised that he disregarded our rules and regulations in the city,” she said.
“But it was encouraging to see that others did have some regard for what we’re doing and tried to accomplish in Atlanta and that’s to slow the spread of Covid-19.”
Of course, if he had taken over a street in the City of Atlanta with guns, Mayor Bottoms would have sent a city council member to talk to them.
President Trump addressed the economy and environmental regulations in his visit to Atlanta, according to the Albany Herald.
The president’s 45-minute visit Wednesday focused on an overhaul of key regulatory rules in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a Nixon-era law signed in 1970 that requires construction projects like pipelines, roads and power plants to undergo certain environmental reviews.
“Today’s action is part of my administration’s fierce commitment to slashing the web of needless bureaucracy that’s holding back our citizens,” Trump said. “It’s one of the biggest things we can be doing for our country.”
Trump also teased he is working with Gov. Brian Kemp on unspecified infrastructure projects in Georgia but did not go into specifics.
“We have some things planned in Georgia that will be really incredible and everyone’s going to want it,” Trump said.
President Trump also name-checked a couple of Congressional candidates while in Atlanta, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
Trump was at a UPS facility in Hapeville to announce changes to permitting reforms for transportation projects when he called on voters to elect [Rich] McCormick and Republican 6th Congressional District candidate Karen Handel.
Trump called McCormick and Handel his “friends.”
“They’ll be there soon in my opinion because they have to be because we need all of the help we can get in Washington,” Trump said.
Handel is running against U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., in an effort to reclaim the 6th District seat she briefly held until McBath defeated her in 2018. The 6th District includes parts of Cobb, Fulton and DeKalb counties.
“They’ll be there soon I hope, I hope,” Trump said. “We need’em. We need them. Get them in there.”
United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in-person instruction is necessary for public schools, according to the AJC.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in a 30-minute online question-and-answer session with the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a fiscally-conservative, nonprofit organization, that students — particularly those from low-income households who don’t have the same resources to learn — need a routine that includes interacting with classmates and teachers.
“We know that there are many kids today who are suffering because of the isolation and distance from their peers and teachers,” DeVos said.
She added: “It is imperative students get back into a routine and into a forward-leaning learning posture to continue to develop themselves.”
DeVos has pushed for schools at all levels to reopen, and President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from schools that do not reopen this semester.
Georgia’s flag may come under fire again if a North Carolinian has their way. From Time:
The actual Confederate flag is almost identical to the current state flag of Georgia, and that’s not a coincidence. It was a deliberate choice, a way of forcing an emblem of the Confederacy onto the public by stealthily using a design that fewer people recognize, and it worked. A recent New York Times article on the removal of the Mississippi flag, when referencing other state flags with designs some consider to be “obliquely referencing Confederate iconography” did not call out the symbol in use by Georgia. The official Confederate flag, hiding in plain sight, still flies over an American capitol building.
Georgia shrank the battle flag emblem from its dominant position on its state flag in 2001 in a move led by the Georgia House Black Caucus and supported by Democratic then-Governor Roy Barnes. However, direct backlash from conservative white voters helped lead to Barnes’ ouster from office. In 2003 the new leadership swiftly replaced the 2001 flag with a second, more clandestine, but nonetheless gigantic emblem of the Confederacy, a so-called “compromise flag.”
The compromise flag, which is still Georgia’s current state flag, is literally the Stars and Bars Confederate flag, but with a small yellow insignia added in the center of the circle. At the time, members of the Georgia Black caucus supported the move as being some version of progress, although admittedly imperfect, stating that at least this symbol of the Confederacy had not been used as commonly to intimidate and terrify Black Americans during the Civil Rights era.
Now we have made even more progress, and the current reckoning should not overlook the “compromise” for which activists had to settle in the past. The Confederate government existed solely to keep Black Americans in unwilling bondage, and its primary symbol still flies over every resident of the state of Georgia. If Americans want to remove what is truly the last Confederate flag, Georgia will have to follow in the footsteps of Mississippi.
Augusta University researchers announced CBD could be therapeutic for some COVID symptoms, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
Using an active ingredient derived from marijuana could potentially help treat the sickest patients with COVID-19, research at Augusta University suggests.
[A]nti-inflammatory effects could also prove useful in treating COVID-19 and specifically a dangerous late-stage condition those patients can develop known as acute respiratory distress syndrome, said Dr. Babak Baban, an immunologist and interim associate dean for research at Dental College of Georgia. That condition often results from an overreaction to the infection from the body’s immune system, known as a cytokine storm.
“When the infection starts we need the immune system to clear the virus,” Baban said. “In the second part, we need to down-regulate it, not stop it but bring down the power of the inflammatory responses.”
The Lowndes County Commission passed an FY 2021 budget, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.
The DeKalb County Commission designated Juneteenth a county holiday, including paid time off for employees, according to the AJC.
The 16-county West Central Health District will now require an appointment for COVID-19 testing, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.
The change went into effect on Monday. Those wanting a test through the health department must register for an appointment time online at www.westcentralhealthdistrict.com.
Dalton City Schools is considering pushing back school reopening, according to the Dalton Daily News Digest.
The first day of school for students is supposed to be Aug. 6, but because the system isn’t planning on announcing exactly how students will return to classes for the 2020-21 term until Monday, parents will need time to make decisions about what is best for their children, and administrators, teachers and staff will need more time to plan based on how many — if any — students will actually be inside school buildings, said Superintendent Tim Scott. That’s because, if the system opts to try for traditional in-person classes, or a hybrid model where some students attend some days and learn from home the other days, families would be able to opt into completely virtual learning if they don’t feel comfortable with students in schools due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“Part of pushing back school is for parents to pick and for us to plan,” Scott said. If more students opt for all-digital education at a school, for example, that school may be able to bring a higher number of other students into buildings more often.
If Dalton Public Schools pushes the student start date back two weeks, to Aug. 20, the new calendar would have 174 student days, but Thanksgiving break would be three days instead of five, among other tweaks, said Don Amonett, deputy superintendent. The school year would end for students on May 21.
Floyd County Commissioners are encouraging residents to follow COVID-19 safety protocols, according to the Rome News Tribune.
Chair Scotty Hancock said the resolution recommends the use of masks whenever it is not possible to socially distance from other people. He said that the city ordinance requiring masks would be difficult to enforce in the more rural parts of the county.
“This commission takes COVID-19 very seriously and we want to do what’s in the best interest of the citizens of Floyd County,” he said. “We request everyone to wear a mask at all times, not just to protect yourself but to protect others.”
The board also signed off on a policy requiring all county employees to wear a mask at work when they can’t socially distance. It includes a mask mandate for anyone who enters a county building.
“We’re trying to protect not only ourselves from the public, but the public from ourselves,” County Manager Jamie McCord said. “We’ve had several exposures and several positive tests in our county’s workforce.”
Oconee County saw protests over return to school plans that do not mandate masks, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
The Athens-Clarke County Courthouse is closed to the public after a Sheriff’s Deputy tested positive, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
Western Circuit Superior Court Judge Eric Norris issued the order shortly before noon, declaring an emergency and the immediate closure of the facility.
The courthouse is scheduled to reopen at 8 a.m. Monday.
Berry College in Rome has closed its campus after a student tested positive, according to the Rome News Tribune.
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