Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for February 7, 2022

On February 7, 1733, the first Georgia colonists had been here a week and they finished building a hand-operated crane to move heavy supplies and livestock from their boats to the top of the forty-foot high bluff where they were building a settlement.

On February 7, 1990, the Communist Party Central Committee of the Soviet Union agreed to a proposal by Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev that is should give up its political monopoly.

The response from the United States was surprise and cautious optimism. One State Department official commented that, “The whole Soviet world is going down the drainpipe with astonishing speed. It’s mind-boggling.” Former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger indicated that he was “personally gratified and astonished that anyone would have the chance to say such things in Moscow without being shot.” President George Bush was more circumspect, merely congratulating President Gorbachev for his “restraint and finesse.”

Ironically, the fact that the Communist Party was willing to accept political challenges to its authority indicated how desperately it was trying to maintain its weakening power over the country. The measures were little help, however–President Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991 and the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist on December 31, 1991.

The National Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus is highlighting the life and work of Frederick Douglass, according to WTVM.

Friday night, Historian John Anderson spoke about the prominent social reformer, speaker and author.

After escaping from slavery in Maryland, Douglass became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, traveling the country to help put an end to slavery.

“This is an awesome way to kick off Black History Month and get people excited about the many, many, many contributions African Americans have made throughout history,” said Jonathan Perkins, director of communications. “And what better way than to have a living history interpreter give voice to someone that we’ve read about for years.”

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Under the Gold Dome Today

TBD – Senate Rules Committee upon Adjournment – 450 CAP

9:00 AM – HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE – 341 CAP

10:00 AM – HOUSE FLOOR SESSION (LD 12) – House Chamber

1:00 PM – HOUSE PUBLIC SAFETY & HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE – 406 CLOB HYBRID

1:00 PM – HOUSE INTRAGOVERNMENTAL COORDINATION COMMITTEE – 341 CAP

1:00 PM – Senate Finance Committee- canceled – 450 CAP

1:00 PM – Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee – Mezz 1

2:00 PM – HOUSE Governmental Affairs General Government Subcommittee – 506 CLOB HYBRID

2:00 PM – Senate Judiciary Committee – 307 CLOB

3:00 PM – HOUSE Governmental Affairs Redistricting and Elections Special Subcommittee – 506 CLOB HYBRID

3:00 PM – Senate Education and Youth – 307 CLOB

4:00 PM – Senate Ethics Committee – 307 CLOB

Governor Brian Kemp‘s office released January Net Tax Revenues.

The State of Georgia’s net tax collections for January totaled roughly $2.95 billion, for an increase of $423.5 million, or 16.7 percent, compared to January 2021, when net tax collections totaled $2.53 billion. Year-to-date, net tax collections approached $17.81 billion, for an increase of roughly $2.70 billion, or 17.9 percent, compared to the previous fiscal year when net tax revenues totaled $15.10 billion through the end of January.

The changes within the following tax categories help further explain January’s overall net tax revenue increase:

Individual Income Tax: Individual Income Tax collections increased by a total of almost $302 million, or 21 percent, compared to last year when Income Tax collections approached $1.44 billion.

The following notable components within Individual Income Tax combine for the net increase:

• Individual Income Tax refunds issued (net of voided checks) increased by $6.6 million, or 15.3 percent
• Individual Withholding payments increased by $149 million, or 13.5 percent, from January 2021
• Individual Income Tax Estimated payments were up $85.5 million, or 33.1 percent, over FY 2021
• All other Individual Tax categories, including Tax Return payments, were up a combined $74.1 million

Sales and Use Tax: Gross Sales and Use Tax collections for January totaled nearly $1.56 billion, for an increase of $207.2 million, or 15.3 percent, over FY 2021. Net Sales and Use Tax increased by $100.2 million, or 14.5 percent, over last year, when net sales tax totaled $690.5 million. The adjusted Sales Tax distribution to local governments totaled almost $766 million, for an increase of $108.6 million, or 16.5 percent, compared to the previous year. Lastly, Sales Tax refunds decreased by $1.5 million, or 41.2 percent, compared to FY 2021.

Corporate Income Tax: Corporate Income Tax collections increased roughly $0.2 million, or 0.2 percent, from the previous year, in which Corporate Tax collections totaled $75.7 million for the month.

The following notable components within Corporate Income Tax make up the net increase:

• Corporate Income Tax refunds issued (net of voids) increased by $26.3 million, or 233.1 percent
• Corporate Income Tax Estimated payments for the month increased by $18.5 million, or 35.9 percent
• All other Corporate Tax types, including Tax Return payments, were up a combined $8 million

Motor Fuel Taxes: Motor Fuel Tax collections increased by $11 million, or 7 percent, over January 2021.

Motor Vehicle – Tag & Title Fees: Motor Vehicle Tag & Title Fees for the month rose by $2.5 million, or 7.9 percent, while Title Ad Valorem Tax (TAVT) collections increased by $5.9 million, or 10 percent, compared to last year’s January total of $58.9 million.

Governor Kemp and Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) Executive Director Jay Neal announced $46 million dollars in grants for law enforcement training.

Governor Brian P. Kemp and Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) Executive Director Jay Neal announced the awards of 46 grants totaling $5,618,762 through the Law Enforcement Training Grant Program.

“We are committed to providing our brave law enforcement officers the specialized training and resources they need to keep Georgians safe,” said Governor Kemp. “This grant program will help pay for essential training – including in use of force and de-escalation – for state and local law enforcement officers to ensure they are prepared for whatever they may encounter while protecting their communities.”

During the 2021 legislative session, Governor Kemp recommended, and lawmakers approved, continued support of a law enforcement training grant program through the CJCC for state and local law enforcement agencies. The program was designed to grant funds on a competitive basis to support scenario-based, hands-on training for law enforcement officers in use of force or de-escalation. For this funding cycle, Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) and Officer Mental Health were added as priority areas.

“Governor Kemp and the Georgia legislature have made it a priority to provide our law enforcement officers with the training and resources they need to better serve the people of Georgia, and we at CJCC are pleased to be a part of this effort,” said CJCC Executive Director Jay Neal.

To see the grant awards list and to learn more about how to apply for grants, click here.

Democrat Stacey Abrams appeared smiling in a Decatur school with a class full of children. We know she was smiling because she was unmasked. From the AJC:

Abrams visited Glennwood Elementary School on Friday to talk about her new children’s book and speak with faculty and staff. The school’s principal tweeted her thanks — along with images of Abrams, without a mask, posing with students and faculty.

“This kind of hypocrisy is exactly why Georgians see her campaign for governor for what it truly is: a quest for more power,” said Kemp spokesman Tate Mitchell, adding that the Republican incumbent is “fighting to put students and parents first.”

The Abrams’ campaign shot back that it was “shameful” how Republicans used a Black History Month reading event to fuel a “pitiful and predictable” critique.

Her campaign said she wore a mask to the event and only removed it so she could be heard by students watching remotely and for a handful of photos on the condition that everyone around her was wearing face-coverings.

The governor, who last week toured a Forsyth County school without a mask, on Sunday accused Abrams of wanting “state government mask mandates for Georgians and their children.”

State legislators are pushing conservative issues in an election year, according to the AJC.

Charles Bullock, a longtime political scientist at the University of Georgia, said it’s been a consistent strategy for conservative lawmakers running for higher office to try to prove just how conservative they are when facing a primary election.

“Most voters don’t spend their days and nights thinking about politics,” he said. “They’re living their day-to-day lives. To be picked up by their antenna, (campaign positions) may need to be especially loud or a bit more extreme to rise above the daily clamor of their lives.”

The Senate is also expected to advance legislation this session that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has made a priority, including the permit-less concealed carry of handguns and limitations on how issues of race are taught in schools.

Bullock also said House Speaker David Ralston doesn’t appear to have plans to run for higher office, so he only has to answer to the voters in his Blue Ridge-based district.

“(Ralston) doesn’t have to show that he is more committed to guns or abortion restrictions or anything,” Bullock said. “He can — and I’m not sure that this is necessarily the case — but he can look at what is best for the good of the party in the long term.

“Georgia is a changing state. That’s probably something Ralston ruminates over,” Bullock said. “But if you’re running for higher office, you have a much foreshortened outlook. It’s about what’s going to get to the voters in May.”

Critical Race Theory is at the heart of one of Georgia’s most contentious political fights this year, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Albany Herald.

GOP Gov. Brian Kemp set the tone during his State of the State address, promising to wade into in an aspect of education Democrats and educators want the state to stay out of: what teachers can teach.

“I look forward to working with members of the General Assembly this legislative session to protect our students from divisive ideologies — like critical race theory — that pit kids against each other,” he told a joint session of the state House and Senate.

Republican lawmakers are looking to codify the GOP’s stance against critical race theory into state law with four bills — two in the state House of Representatives and two in the Georgia Senate.

All four of the bills would apply to elementary and secondary schools across the state. While only one — Senate Bill 377 — specifically targets Georgia’s public colleges and universities and the state’s technical colleges, all four mention “state agencies,” a term that includes the University System of Georgia and the technical college system.

Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, which represents elementary and secondary teachers, said Republicans are launching an “attack on public education” by injecting themselves into an aspect of education where they don’t belong.

“Educators are experts on curriculum and instruction,” she said. “Educators should be in charge of of curriculum and instruction, not elected officials.”

From the Valdosta Daily Times:

A virtual forum sponsored by Democrat Reps. Karen Bennett, Rhonda Taylor and Donna McLeod on Thursday highlighted several bills in the chambers that they say seek to censor what history is taught in school, what materials are available in books and libraries, and gives parents the option to chose what their child learns.

“What the Republican Party is attempting to do is to change history and deny a good education to our students,” said Georgia Rep. Doreen Carter of the House Education Committee during the Thursday forum. “This bill is talking about how some people may feel if we teach the truth. Both of these bills are talking about how we’re going to teach history, especially how it teaches American U.S. history as it relates to how they have treated Blacks and Black and brown people in the U.S.”

Four Congressional District Chairs of the Georgia Republican Party signed a statement.

We, the undersigned members of the Georgia Republican Party grassroots leadership would like to inform you of an issue that has recently surfaced in the Georgia legislature. Several Republican Senators are attempting to sponsor and pass a bill that would be harmful not only to Republican principles but also to the party organization and structure itself. Right now it is still in the Senate Ethics Committee; let’s make sure it stops there!

Senate Bill 350 sponsored by John Albers, Brandon Beach, and Clint Dixon would effectively give the General Assembly the ability, at the request of your local elected officials, to introduce an ordinance allowing for all county elected offices to become non-partisan. County Commissions, local Boards of Education, and offices of consolidated governments which are filled by the vote of the electors would be allowed to have no party affiliation and become non-partisan. Some of our counties have already started down this slippery slope to non-partisan elections, and this bill would hasten a county’s transition away from the party system.

As your leadership, we have seen this issue come up in the legislature before. We have previously informed our legislators this is not beneficial for the party structure for several reasons:

This bill gives power to the local elected officials and the General Assembly to exert their will on the voters without any input from the voters.

It infringes on a candidate’s Freedom of Speech to declare their party affiliation.

It inhibits our local Republican parties from collecting qualifying fees which allow our county parties to promote conservative values in the community.

Passage of this bill hurts the party in higher level races as our state and federal Republican nominees often start at the local level when seeking to hold office.

The ability to hold elected officials accountable and for grassroots to lobby issues they are passionate about becomes ineffective.

Passage of this bill would take away the ability of the voter to know how their candidates present and represent themselves through alignment with a political party.

We urge you to reach out to the members of the State Senate Ethics Committee by phone or email and respectfully ask them to vote “NO” on SB 350. The committee is voting on this bill on Monday afternoon, so your emails and phone calls should be done as soon as possible.

Respectfully,

Joel Natt, 7th District Chair
Bethany Ballard, 8th District Chair
Rebecca Yardley, 9th District Chair
James Cooper, 10th District Chair

Former United States Senator David Perdue called himself an “outcast,” according to The Brunswick News.

“I’m running for governor against an incumbent Republican governor,” he said. “In this race, I feel like an outcast.”

Perdue spoke during a campaign stop Sunday on St. Simons Island at a rally hosted by We the People of Southeast Georgia.

The organization is not associated with the Republican Party but is considered a parallel organization.

He said Republicans share some of the responsibility for his runoff loss because they failed to vote in the runoff in the same numbers as the general election.

Perdue called for the creation of a full-time election law enforcement division that would be overseen by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. He said allowing the Secretary of State to investigate voter irregularities is like “grading your homework” because the office also runs elections.

Prior to Perdue speaking, Burt Jones, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, addressed the audience of more than 100 people.

“You need to figure the candidates who will deliver on their promises,” he said. “I am tired of weak-kneed Republicans.”

Jeff Jones, Republican candidate for state senate, said he will support a ban on critical race theory in schools, a constitution gun carry law and to reveal the truth in the 2020 elections.

Republican state legislators are being criticized by Democrats for drawing district maps, according to the Associated Press via the Statesboro Herald.

The Republican-majority legislature is seeking to impose its own maps in as many as four large counties, which collectively have more than 2 million residents. Republicans say their maps better comply with federal law and keep communities together. But Democrats say they’re driven by partisan and racial motives, threatening lawsuits to overturn the maps.

“It’s a petite coup of our local government,” said Athens-Clarke County Commissioner Melissa Link, who could be drawn out of her district and blocked from running for reelection this year.

Georgia is unusual in that the state’s General Assembly has final say over county commission and county school board districts in the state’s 159 counties. In most states, local governments are responsible for redrawing their own district lines once every 10 years, to adjust for population changes after U.S. Census results are released. But in Georgia, while local governments may propose maps, lawmakers have to sign off. And Republicans have other ideas in mind for Cobb and Gwinnett counties in suburban Atlanta, as well as for consolidated city-counties that govern Athens and Augusta.

“The goal of the maps that I’ve signed on to is to provide fair, balanced, reasonable maps that represent communities of interest,” state Rep. Ed Setzler, a Marietta Republican, said Thursday in a discussion on Cobb County redistricting.

Rep. Bonnie Rich, a Suwanee Republican pushing the Gwinnett County changes, called [Democratic State Rep. Sam] Park’s racial claims “ugly and baseless name-calling.” She said her proposal, passed 96-70 Thursday by the state House and sent to the Senate, is more compact. She also said it recognizes that her constituents in northern Gwinnett County need their own representative, saying they have different needs. It would create a whiter, more Republican district on what is now a commission made up of five Democrats.

In the previous five decades, any voting district changes in Georgia would have required U.S. Justice Department preclearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. However, the U.S. Supreme Court halted preclearance in 2013. Rudensky said such review was most crucial at the local level, where public scrutiny may be less than on congressional and state legislative maps

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announced his new Chief of Staff, according to the AJC.

Odie Donald II, administrator of the Augusta-Richmond County consolidated government, is returning to his native Atlanta to serve as Mayor Andre Dickens’ chief of staff.

Dickens said in a statement Friday that Donald is the right person to help him meet his administration’s goals because of his “super-charged experience.” Donald’s first day is Feb. 28.

“Mayor Dickens has one of the most ambitious agendas of any mayor in the country. To return to my hometown to join the team that will bring that agenda to fruition is a full-circle moment for me, and I am excited to get going,” Donald said in a statement.

From WRDW:

District eight commissioner Brandon Garrett responded directly to Odie’s announcement on Twitter saying: “Hope that’s a good move for you. Been quite a short 15 months here, especially with a 3-year contract.”

In Donald’s contract, he was required to give 45 days’ notice. Now, some say it’s better to let him go.

“Nobody saw this coming, so something doesn’t add up,” said Catherine Smith-McKnight, commissioner, district three.

John Clarke, commissioner, district 10 said: “The speed in which it was done was unexpected, but his eventual departure was not unexpected.”

McKnight said: “I just don’t understand what happened.” “It seems to me like maybe he’s in a hurry to get back to Atlanta. I say let him go.”

Bleckley County Sheriff Kristopher Coody turned himself in after being charged, according to the Associated Press via AccessWDUN.

He faces charges, including sexual battery, for allegedly groping an Atlanta area judge, news outlets reported.

The alleged incident occurred last month at a hotel bar as the Georgia Sheriff’s Association held its winter meetings. A warrant states Coody “did place his hand” on the victim’s body parts, without the victim’s consent.

Athens-Clarke County Commissioner Patrick J. Davenport was sentenced after pleading guilty to DUI, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

Davenport is up for re-election later this year in his District 1 seat.

Athens-Clarke County elections officials say they are strained by redistricting processes, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

Elections Assistant Lisa McGlaun told the Athens Banner-Herald the elections office faces a Feb. 18 deadline from the state to have updated voter information in the system, including addresses coded into the right district.

These changes to the voter registration system require the staff to audit the information for accuracy, according to Director of Elections Charlotte Sosebee. The plan is to have all of the district assignments entered in the system, audited and completed by Feb. 16, two days before the secretary of state’s deadline.

In order to meet this deadline, McGlaun said ideally, the new district map should have been ready by Feb. 1.

“Because otherwise, we were going to be working many, many hours of overtime to get this done by the 18th,” she said.

The map now in the Senate proposed by the Republican members of the local delegation — Gaines, Wiedower, Sen. Frank Ginn and Sen. Bill Cowsert — drastically changes Athens-Clarke’s 10 commission districts, renumbering many of them.

Part of the elections office’s duties affected by redistricting includes mailing out new registration cards to all voters in Athens-Clarke.

Regardless of what map is approved, the minimum cost of redistricting locally is $32,000, calculated on the current postage price of 40 cents per registered voter, according to Sosebee. There are more than 80,000 eligible voters in the county, all of whom the elections office must inform of the district changes.

Sosebee said that the goal is that all voter precinct cards will be mailed on March 16.

Hall County will run elections for the City of Flowery Branch, according to the Gainesville Times.

The election will be held from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 15.

The special election for the City Council Post 2 seat was called because Mayor Ed Asbridge left his council post in order to run for mayor, and the seat could not be filled during the November election. Asbridge was elected mayor after running unopposed.

The qualifying fee for candidates is $144, and the qualifying period will be held Feb. 14-16 during regular city business hours at 5410 W. Pine St. The last day voters may register before the election is Feb. 14.

The estimated cost of the election is $7,756.

Former University of Georgia football player Ben Souther announced he will run for Congress against U.S. Representative Andrew Clyde (R), according to the Gainesville Times.

“Whoever represents this district needs to live here, be plugged into this district and know it like the back of their hand,” Souther said.

Clyde was drawn out of the Ninth District when legislators drew new district lines last fall following the 2020 Census. Clyde, of Jackson County, now lives in District 10, but he announced last fall that he would still defend his current seat. Congressional candidates are not required to live in the district they represent, as long as they live in the state.

His top issues include ending federal mask and vaccine mandates and securing the southern border.

Souther spent two years as a special agent with the FBI. Since leaving the bureau in November, Souther has started a real estate firm, North Georgia Company.

Fulton County Commissioner Liz Hausmann is running for State Senate District 14, according to the AJC.

Hausmann, a Republican who has spent 11 years on the county board, will face Rep. Josh McLaurin, a Democrat who represents House District 51.

She sat on the first Johns Creek City Council and also served on the Fulton board of education from 2002 to 2006. Her commissioner term finished at the end of this year. McLaurin, an attorney elected in 2018, has called for an overhaul of the state’s prison system.

As noted by two political reporters with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the senate district itself has undergone some change. It was moved from rural Bartow County to North Fulton/Buckhead to account for population growth, making it a district with a lot of political variance.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R) has raised more than $2.4 million dollars in his reelection campaign, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Gwinnett Daily Post.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr raised more than $825,000 toward his reelection bid during the last half of last year, the Republican’s campaign reported Thursday.

Carr was elected attorney general in 2018, winning 51.3% of the vote in defeating Democrat Charlie Bailey.

Carr’s fundraising during the last six months of 2021 brought his total contributions for the 2022 election cycle to more than $2.4 million. That puts him in a much better position than four years ago, when he had raised slightly more than $1 million through this point in the election cycle, Carr campaign spokesman Brian Robinson wrote in an email.

Dougherty County Commission Chair Chris Cohilas announced he will run for a third term, according to the Albany Herald.

As he announced his plans to run for a third term as chairman of the Dougherty County Commission, Chris Cohilas was all too glad to do a little bit of both. He has a plan, a vision, for the future of the county, he said during a candid conversation. But he’ll go toe-to-toe with anyone over the question of recent accomplishments and his eight years of service on behalf of southwest Georgia’s largest community.

“I had no idea what it would be like to be tested under the circumstances we’ve faced as a community over my eight years in office; we’ve been through so much,” Cohilas, an attorney with the Albany-based Watson Spence firm, said. “But it became clear as we worked to overcome the hardship of four presidentially declared disasters — tornados, storms, straight-line winds, a hurricane, a recession, a pandemic — that we were all, from the poorest poor to the most comfortable, beaten up over these emergencies.”

“For some reason, though, we never had anyone who’d ask for the things we needed, the things that other communities were getting. We were just told, ‘You don’t meet the formula.’ I knew that wasn’t true, so I thought it important that we tell our story, that we bring officials here to witness what we were going through. What that did, what getting in a car and driving to Atlanta to talk to folks in state government or flying to Washington to talk to federal leaders, is it positioned us for a seat at the table.”

“And I’ll be honest with you: One of the reasons I’m running for another four years in office is that, now that we have an opportunity to maybe catch our breath without some disaster staring us in the face, I want to see Albany and Dougherty County become all they can be with the money we fought so hard for.”

Athens Clarke County Commissioners and Board of Education members met to discuss spending COVID relief funds, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

The local government currently has $35 million of the federal COVID-relief funding to spend. Mayor Kelly Girtz presented a breakdown of those funds at Monday’s meeting, including $11 million for affordable housing, $7 million for youth development, an estimated $3 million to $5 million for behavioral health support, and another estimated $3 million to $5 million in homeless support, leaving the remaining $7 million in reserve.

That was only Girtz’s proposal, however, and the commission is set to meet Feb. 15 to decided how to spend the money, which must be allocated by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026.

The commission met with the school board to discuss the school district’s needs, so that some of the funds could be used in a joint effort to support the district’s goals.

Floyd County government was hit hard by staff shortages related to COVID, according to the Rome News Tribune.

“Covid has kind of taken a toll on the third floor over here,” Floyd County Superior Court Chief Judge John Niedrach said during a Floyd County Elected Officials Committee meeting on Friday. “We’re working through it though.”

Other elected officials and department heads reported people out due to COVID-19 symptoms, including Clerk of Superior Court Barbara Penson and Magistrate Judge Gene Richardson.

“I’ve had one fourth of my staff in the last two months come down with covid… we were actually down to one clerk, but our second clerk came back in recently,” Juvenile Court Judge Greg Price said. “We’re all tired of wearing masks, but we need to do it to get through this.”

Columbus will hold on implementing parking meters downtown after public reactions, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

Deputy City Manager Lisa Goodwin told the Ledger-Enquirer that public feedback regarding meters for on-street parking has been negative. The city held its first public parking meeting of 2022 Jan. 26, and a second meeting was held Feb. 2 at 1234 Events on Broadway.

“We heard you,” Goodwin said at the second meeting. “We’re clear on the fact that you don’t feel that this is the right time to bring forward a plan for parking.”

Lee County will receive a $12 million dollar state grant to build out internet access to unserved residents, according to WALB.

On Tuesday, Gov. Brian Kemp announced the recipients of The Broadband Access Grant. The Lee County Board of Commissioners was among the recipients.

With the financial collaboration of over $7 million from Windstream and $1.2 million from the Lee County Board of Commissioners, 4,234 residents will receive high-speed, reliable broadband internet.

“In collaboration with Windstream and Sumter EMC, who is a partner in collaborating with us, both of those agencies in companies working together helped us develop this application,” [Lee County Manager Christi] Dockery said.

Dockery said this will foster opportunities for new economic development and allow people to work from home.

From the Albany Herald:

In a news release, the Lee Board of Commissioners offered thanks to President Biden, U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, U.S. Congressman Sanford Bishop, Kemp, state Sen. Carden Summers, state Rep. Bill Yearta and the Broadband Committee members for the “historical funding that will expedite internet access for Lee County and rural Georgia.”

Muscogee County public schools will change from requiring masks to recommending their use, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

Masks will be optional but recommended in MCSD buildings beginning Feb. 14, the district announced Friday. Under federal mandates, masks still are required on school buses.

“The district will continue enhanced cleaning protocols, promotion of handwashing and proper hygiene, physical distancing when possible and illness protocols,” the news release said. “In addition, the district will continue to monitor and be responsive to local data and conditions in schools and the community, adjusting as warranted and recommended by the medical experts.”

The Troup County Sheriff’s Office will no longer require masks for visitors, according to WTVM.

Jonny Moseley, state director for Georgia Victory Election Integrity, will speak to the Whitfield County Republican Party on Tuesday, February 7, 2022 at 6:30 PM, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

 

USS Savannah was brought to life on Friday, according to WTOC:

“Officers and crew of the USS Savannah, man our ship and bring her to life,” said Dianne Davison Isakson, ship sponsor.

Leaders from across the coastal empire joined with military officials and their families to mark the USS Savannah’s entry to service.

“It can not be understated the importance of this day, and the importance of this vessel,” said Mayor Van Johnson of Savannah.

“It’s fitting that it would find its home in Savannah, a city whose agility has allowed her to be a defining force in the entire scope of American history,” said Representative Buddy Carter (R-GA).

“We ask for fair winds and following seas for them, even as we ask for safe travel for all who have come to his place on this day to send the USS Savannah into its role in our nations defense.”

This is the sixth navy vessel to bear the name Savannah. Even though the ship was commissioned here in Brunswick, its home port will be across the country in San Diego, the ship will head to port after Saturday’s commissioning.