Savannah received news of the battle at Lexington on May 10, 1775, leading to a raid of British gunpowder for the colonial effort. On the same day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Second Continental Congress met.
On May 10, 1863, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died a week after being shot at by his own troops.
He died, as he had wished, on the Sabbath, May 10, 1863, with these last words: “Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.”
On May 10, 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops near Irwinville, Georgia.
On May 10, 1869, a ceremonial “Golden Spike” was driven in Promontory, Utah, symbolizing completion of a transcontinental railroad line joining the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad.
The first observance of Mother’s Day was May 10, 1908 at St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first official “Mother’s Day.”
On May 10, 2006, Georgia State School Superintendent Linda Schrenko, a Republican, pled guilty to federal charges of fraud and money laundering, beginning a streak of Republican State School Supers to leave office under a cloud.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Governor Brian Kemp issued Executive Order 05.06.21.02, suspending Talbot County District 1 Commissioner Robert Lee Lanier and empaneling a commission to review and recommend further action after Lanier was indicted for possession of methamphetamine.
Gov. Kemp also signed at least ten more pieces of legislation on Friday, according to WALB.
House Bill 286 by State Rep. Houston Gaines (R-Athens) was among the bills on Friday’s menu, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Athens Banner Herald.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, forbids cities and counties from cutting the budgets of most police agencies in the state by more than 5% over a five-year period, except during times of financial trouble such as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Its passage largely along party lines in the General Assembly came as Republican lawmakers moved to block efforts to reduce police budgets in the wake of last summer’s nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
Democratic leaders slammed the measure as a power grab by the state over local governments, noting also that criminal-justice advocates have largely called for shifting some budget dollars from law enforcement to other areas like mental health and housing rather than outright gutting police agencies.
“The defund-the-police movement seeks to vilify the men and women who leave their families every day and put their lives on the lines to protect all Georgians,” Kemp said at a bill-signing ceremony in Barrow County Friday where he was flanked by several officers.
Gov. Kemp also signed Senate Bill 221, which authorizes a new type of political fundraising organization, according to the AJC.
Without any public notification from his office, Gov. Brian Kemp last week quietly gave his approval to a new law allowing state leaders to set up committees that could raise money during General Assembly sessions while lobbyists are trying to get legislation passed.
Senate Bill 221 — which was pushed by the Republican majority and opposed by Democrats — also allows new committees backing Kemp’s reelection and those of legislative leaders to raise and spend unlimited contributions from donors, essentially circumventing current limits on how much individuals, special interests and businesses can give to candidates.
“There is not going to be any limits on spending. There would not be a contribution limit,” said Rick Thompson, a member of the state ethic commission whose company has set up dozens of campaign committees and political nonprofits for candidates and organizations over the years.
SB 221 is aimed at preparing Republicans for the 2022 elections, when Kemp will likely face a rematch with former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, who set fundraising records when they ran against each other in 2018.
The measure lets a governor, lieutenant governor, a party’s nominee for those positions, and Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate create so-called “leadership committees,” which would raise money either for their own races or to try to affect other contests.
Senate Rules Chairman Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, who sponsored SB 221, noted that the new leadership committees will have to disclose who gives them money and how it’s spent. That, he said, would limit the influence of “dark money,” contributions funneled through nonprofits and other entities that don’t have to disclose donors.
Today, Gov. Kemp is expected to sign House Bill 479, repealing Georgia’s Citizen Arrest statute, according to the AJC.
HB 479 would repeal citizen’s arrest from state law while still allowing employees at businesses, those conducting business on someone else’s property, security officers, private investigators and inspectors at truck scales to detain someone they believe has committed a crime. The bill also would allow law enforcement officers to make arrests outside their jurisdictions.
“We’re a state that’s too busy to hate, and we don’t need modern-day vigilantism. We did it in a way that continues to protect peoples’ right to protect themselves, their property and their person, but it also isn’t going to allow people to be hunted down in the middle of a public street somewhere. And being the first state in the country to do that, says a lot about our state.”
Gov. Kemp created a multi-agency task force to address violent crime in Atlanta, according to 11Alive.
The team, assembled by Gov. Brian Kemp, is conducting operations throughout the weekend – their third in this operation.
It’s still too early to tell how many arrests they’ll make on Friday night. But, for the past two weekends, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia State Patrol, Department of Natural Resources, Atlanta Police, and the Fulton County Sheriff’s office have made 1,415 arrests, conducted 1,799 traffic stops, and found 25 people with outstanding warrants.
Governor Kemp said people are frustrated with leaders and politicians making promises and taking no action and he wanted that to change.
“We want to make a dent in this, we want to send a message that we’re doing all we can to alleviate the problem and to send a message, we’re not going to continue to put up with this,” Kemp said.
“I grew very frustrated over the summer with a lot of things going on,” Kemp said. “Last summer, when you had an Atlanta Police officer that was very lucky not to lose his life, hit by one of these maniacs that’s drinking and drunk, driving a four-wheeler downtown in Atlanta.”
While Kemp said politicians have been making empty promises to tackle violence in the city, he praised Chief Rodney Bryant for his permanent position as head of the Atlanta Police.
“I think it will give his officers and his administration a lot of stability and I think he’s done a good job with the situation he’s been left with,” Kemp said.
“Having boots on the ground and a presence makes a difference in law enforcement,” Kemp said.
“There have been a lot of arrests. A lot of cars towed and taken down a lot of people. We’ve had a lot of chases which is dangerous work,” Kemp said.
“People need to know that are creating these acts and creating this violence we are going to go after them unlike the case over the last year. We are going to continue to do this,” Kemp said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave passing marks to oxygen-injecting equipment installed as part of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, according to the Savannah Morning News.
The Army Corps of Engineers released a 172-page report that concluded testing last summer found the injection machines successfully offset a small loss of dissolved oxygen in the water as the river gets deepened to make room for larger cargo ships.
The Army Corps spent $100 million to build a pair of stations on the Savannah River equipped with large machines that suck in water, swirl it with oxygen pulled from the air and inject the mixture back into the river that’s home to blue crabs, striped bass and endangered shortnose sturgeon.
A 2013 legal settlement with environmental groups who sued over the harbor deepening required the Army Corps to prove that the machines worked.
The agency says next year it should finish deepening the 27-mile (43-kilometer) shipping channel that links the Savannah port to the Atlantic Ocean.
Georgia’s tourism industry is rebounding, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Statesboro Herald.
The leisure and hospitality sector lost 223,000 jobs statewide between February and April 2020.
“We’re picking back up,” said Mark Jaronski, the deputy commissioner at the Georgia Department of Economic Development in charge of the agency’s tourism division. “The vaccine rollout has had the most positive effect on our visitation.”
Even during its worst days, the pandemic didn’t damage Georgia’s tourism industry as much as it hurt other states.
Jaronski credited the comparatively soft impact to Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision not to completely shut down the Georgia’s economy when he issued a shelter in place order in April 2020.
“Because we remained open, we were able to do better than the national average and many states,” he said.
During fiscal year 2020, which ran through the end of June of last year, visits to state parks grew to 11.8 million, an increase of 562,000 over the previous year. Camping occupancy improved from 13% to 46%.
“Last year was quite a busy year,” said Kim Hatcher, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Parks, Recreation & Historic Sites Division. “Occupancy is definitely up, mostly for camping.”
With the continuing popularity of the beaches and mountains, the state’s leisure and hospitality industry had gained back 144,000 of the 223,000 jobs lost to the pandemic by March of this year, 65% of the total, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.
Passenger levels are climbing at the Savannah/Hilton Head Island airport, according to WTOC.
Within the last couple of months, the airport industry has seen travelers return in big numbers. As for the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, they have recently added new airlines and routes, so this summer could be their busiest summer yet.
The airport is seeing about 10,000 people go through on its busiest days. That’s a huge difference compared to last May when they were at only about 1,000 travelers per day. Even though numbers are going up, they are not quite back to pre-pandemic levels yet but say they expect to be by the summer months.
“Once you get to the checkpoint there are going to be lines. They move quickly thankfully. TSA is staffed well and everything is moving along smoothly. It is just a little daunting when you see that line when you come around the corner, so, we want everybody to be prepared and not panic when they get here and see a line,” said Lori Lynah, Director of Marketing and Air Service Development at the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport.
The airport also has operations managers working the lines to keep people moving through and making sure they aren’t missing flights.
Since lines have been long lately, travelers are advised to arrive at the airport two hours before their flight is scheduled to leave.
Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler (R-Carrollton) is urging Georgians to apply for available jobs, according to 13WMAZ.
“We’re not seeing a lot of individuals return back to the workforce, which has led to a very large number of vacant job openings,” Georgia labor commissioner Mark Butler said.
He says it’s because of the extra $300 people are getting in their unemployment checks from the federal government.
Butler says this takes the unemployment checks from $250 a week to about $550 a week. That adds up to about $14 an hour.
He says they’ve listened to the complaints from employers, and are transitioning to help.
“We’re gonna be reinstituting work search here soon that requires people, you’ve got to get out there and you’ve got to be applying for jobs,” he said.
“There are so many employers right now across the state, obviously also in metro Atlanta, who are being very aggressive about hiring right now, offering hiring bonuses, a lot better wages that we saw pre-pandemic. So don’t wait,” he said.
“We are hearing from employers that are struggling to meet demand right now due to the lack of applicants for open positions,” Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said in a news release. “Our mission is to not only bridge the pay gap for those who are temporarily unemployed, but to also provide re-employment support for those who are looking to re-enter the work force, filling the critical vacancies we are seeing in almost every industry right now.”
“Restaurant owners have battled the last year to overcome the challenges of the pandemic, making hard decisions to keep our doors open only to now have to reduce hours and close dine-in services when we can’t find employees,” Zach Steed, owner of Moe’s Southwest Grill in Carrollton and Newnan, and Captain D’s Seafood Kitchen of Villa Rica, said. “We all want to return to the strong economy we experienced prior to COVID-19, but we can’t do that without an available work force.”
Georgia peanut farmers voted overwhelmingly to reauthorize the Georgia Peanut Commission, according to the Albany Herald.
The Georgia Peanut Commission’s referendum received reaffirmation with a vote of 94.43 percent, the highest the commission has received in its nearly 60-year existence. The 2021 referendum was held March 15 through April 16.
“I am thankful our board and staff have been able to work in the areas of research, promotion and education of peanuts, as well as support efforts in Washington to maintain legislation that is helpful for peanut farmers, which in turn, continues to allow us to provide a healthy, nutritious product for consumers,” Armond Morris, chairman of the Georgia Peanut Commission, said in a recent news release.
Effingham County started collecting a one-cent sales tax after the passage of a T-SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for Transportation) in November, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Effingham County Manager Tim Callanan expects more than $45 million to be raised in the next five years as a result of the recently approved Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
TSPLOST is a one penny tax on every dollar spent in the county and is earmarked to fund much needed road and other transportation improvements in the county.
The penny tax was approved in the November 2020 general election by a 2 to 1 margin by county voters, but according to state law, Callanan said, collection could not begin until April 1.
“Rather than wait for the funds to come in over the course of five years, we borrowed $35 million so we could get started immediately. We’ll use the TSPLOST funds as they come in to repay the debt.”
“The fact that this tax ends in five years means the county has to deliver on what it promised to accomplish. If it doesn’t, the votes to renew TSPLOST won’t be there,” the county manager said.
The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners will meet in a new location this week, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.
The Whitfield County Board of Commissioners will meet Monday at 6 p.m., the board’s usual day and time. But the meeting will be in the Wink Theatre, not at Stage 123 in downtown Dalton, which has hosted all but one of the commissioners’ meetings this year.
“Stage 123 was already booked on both Monday and Tuesday,” said Board of Commissioners Chairman Jevin Jensen. “But Rock Bridge Community Church (which owns both facilities) was kind enough to allow us to use the Wink.”
The Athens-Clarke County Jail inoculated about 50 inmates with the J&J vaccine, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
The vaccinations were administered through a partnership with Innovative Health Care Institute and St. Mary’s Health Care System.
Gainesville City Board of Education scheduled public hearings on the budget and millage rate for the next Fiscal Year, according to AccessWDUN.
Cave Springs City Council is considering rewriting their alcohol ordinance after a new distillery is proposed, according to the Rome News Tribune.
A proposed distillery, based downtown and using the famed water, sparked a complete overhaul of the alcohol control ordinance. That, and the frequent festivals at Rolater Park in the heart of the city, has officials considering an open container district. Several options have come up for discussion in the past and councilmembers may be ready to make a decision Tuesday, with the summer season starting to ramp up.
The White County Board of Commissioners adopted legislation to improve safety in rental treehouses, according to AccessWDUN.
Back in March, firefighters responded to a fire at what’s known as a “pedestal” or tree house-type rental cabin at 184 Walnut Ridge Drive.
No injuries were reported in the fire that started in the back of the home, and all occupants got out safely from a front entry and exit ramp, but the incident prompted county officials to review safety codes for such structures.
According to White County Commission Chairman Travis Turner, who spoke out at Monday’s commission meeting, things could have been much worse, since the structure had only one entrance and exit. In addition, the height on the back of the structure was around 70 feet.
At their Monday meeting, commissioners adopted a resolution that would add to the current building code a requirement that would require such structures have a second exit. The county must go through the process of submitting an amendment to the building code to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for its approval before the county can make such changes locally.
John Sell , White County Community and Economic Development Director, told commissioners he and other county officials met with the builder of the homes on Monday, and he has agreed to construct a second way in and out from the structures. The builder has plans to construct two more “pedestal” cabins, and he said he will include the second entry/exit when those are built.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson is joining a gun violence prevention campaign, according to WTOC.
City officials kicked off a 100-day campaign Sunday afternoon with several mothers who can no longer can spend Mother’s Day with their children after losing them to gun violence.
“If you see something! Say something!”
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson and several aldermen stood on top of a roof to get the message out.
It was a symbolic gesture to show how the mayor, city and police will be getting on top of crime in Savannah.
The City of Savannah wants to help put an end to gun violence in Savannah in ten ways in 100 days and they’re asking for help.
Wendell Holcombe retired after 40 years on the Dacula City Council, according to the AJC.
Serving on the City Council for 40 years, Holcombe resigned from his post to focus on his health. The city celebrated his retirement Thursday night, swearing in Denis Haynes on the same night to fill the open seat.
Haynes will finish out the rest of Holcombe’s four-year term that expires this year, and said he plans to run to keep the seat in November’s city elections. While Haynes will physically take Holcombe’s chair in the council chambers, he said it’d be impossible to replace him.
#COVID
Statewide numbers are declining, according to AccessWDUN.
According to the most recent data from the Georgia Department of Public Health, the seven-day rolling average of new cases in the state dipped to just under 762 per day on Saturday. That’s the lowest number since June 12, 2020.
After a major spike in December and January, the rolling average of state numbers had hit a low of 869 per day on April 7. There was a slight increase before they started to decline again around the start of May.
COVID-19 deaths in Georgia also appear to be on the downward trend, with the rolling average reaching a low of 16 on Thursday, the lowest numbers since July of 2020. That number saw a slight uptick over the weekend to 18.
Numbers continue to be low in North Georgia as well. The rolling average of cases per day in Hall County did reach 18 on Saturday, the highest since March 13, but that total is still a far cry from the peak of over 200 cases per day seen in mid-January.
According to the Department of Public Health’s vaccine dashboard, 28 percent of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated against the virus.
North Hall High School is seeing higher numbers of COVID-related absences, according to the Gainesville Times.
By the end of Friday, May 7, the school had six positive cases among students and 84 students in quarantine, according to Stan Lewis, the Hall County Schools’ director of communications. During April, North Hall High’s daily COVID- related absences with students and staff ranged from zero to one. For March, the highest count reached four on March 4 and March 5.
When asked if the uptick in student absences was related to an unsanctioned prom that took place off campus on April 30, Lewis said the district could not give any indication of the two’s connection.
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