The Second Continental Congress opened in Philadelphia on September 13, 1775; Georgia was represented by Archibald Bulloch, Lyman Hall, John Houstoun, and John Zubly.
On September 13, 1788, the Confederation Congress voted to implement the Constitution and authorized states to elect Senators and Representatives and called the first Presidential election, with selection of presidential electors in the states to be held on January 7, 1789, and February 4, 1789 as the day electors would cast their ballots.
Francis Scott Key composed the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner” on September 14, 1814.
On September 15, 1831, Dr. Samuel Worcester and Dr. Elizur Butler – missionaries – were tried in a Lawrenceville courtroom for living as white people among the Cherokee and refusing to take an oath of loyalty to Georgia, convicted and sentenced to hard labor. Some historians refer to this case, which went to the United States Supreme Court on appeal, as the beginning of the events that led to the forced removal of the Cherokee people from Georgia on the “Trail of Tears.”
HMS Beagle, carrying Charles Darwin, arrived at the Gallapagos Islands on September 15, 1835.
On September 14, 1885, Georgia Governor Henry McDaniel signed legislation granting up to 200 acres in Fulton and DeKalb Counties to the federal government to be used in the constuction of Fort McPherson, which was named after Union Maj. Gen. James McPherson, who was killed in the Battle of Atlanta in 1864.
On September 14, 1901, President William McKinley died of an infection from gunshot wounds suffered eight days earlier.
On September 15, 1904, Wilbur Wright made the first in-flight turn in an airplane.
The first two women to enter the Georgia General Assembly, Viola Ross Napier of Bibb County and Atlanta Constitution reporter Bessie Kempton of Fulton County, were elected on September 13, 1922.
Early on the morning of September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls.
On September 14, 1974, Eric Clapton’s cover of the Bob Marley song, “I Shot the Sheriff” reached #1 on the music charts. After 52 years, we still don’t know who shot the deputy.
On September 15, 1996, the Texas Rangers retired #34 in honor of the most dominant pitcher in professional baseball history, Nolan Ryan.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
On November 5, 2024, Statesboro City Council District One voters may cast their ballots for that seat at Statesboro Primitive Baptist Church, according to the Statesboro Herald.
Voters in Statesboro’s City Council District 1 who wait until Election Day, Nov. 5, to vote in the special election to fill their vacant council seat will do so at Statesboro Primitive Baptist Church, 4 South Zetterower Ave., which is also the county’s “Church Precinct” for the regular national, state and county election occurring that day.
In fact, the city special election item will appear on the same ballots with the presidential, legislative and county races, but only for voters who are residents of Statesboro’s Council District 1, said county Election Supervisor Shontay Jones. That will also be the case during the 16-day early voting opportunity, beginning Oct. 15. Early voting will be hosted by the Bulloch County Board of Elections and Registration staff in their office suite at the County Annex, 113 North Main St., Suite 201, Tuesday through Friday, Oct. 15-18, and Monday through Friday, Oct. 21-25 and Oct. 28-Nov. 1, plus two Saturdays, Oct. 19 and 26. Additionally, three days of early voting for Bulloch County registered voters will be held in the Russell Union on the Georgia Southern University campus, Tuesday through Thursday, Oct. 22, 23 and 24.
Sometimes, because of the timing in regard to election law and other factors, special city elections on regular county election days have had to be held “separate and apart” from them, on separate voting machines in different areas of the precinct buildings, as well as during early voting. But with that is not the case this time.
“It will be attached on our ballot, the county ballot, as a special election for those voters who are eligible to vote in City Council District 1,” Jones said. “So when those voters show up on Election Day, or come in and cast a ballot in early voting, for those that are also in District 1, as sorted by their combo numbers, they’ll see at the very end of the county-state-federal ballot, ‘Special Election,’ and they’ll see those City Council candidates for fulfilling (former Councilman) Phil Boyum’s term.”
Three candidates, John Grotheer, Ken Jackson and Tangie Reese Johnson, qualified to run in the special election for the vacant District 1 council seat during the three-day candidate qualifying period, Aug. 20-22.
Statesboro Primitive Baptist Church is not a voting place in regular city elections. In regular city election years, which are odd-numbered years such as 2025, Statesboro’s two voting places are City Precinct 1, which was previously at the William James Educational Complex and would now be at Luetta Moore Park, and City Precinct 2, at Pittman Park United Methodist Church on Fair Road.
But using either of those regular city voting places for the special election would have put city District 1 voters having to cast ballots at two different locations on Election Day because they are also residents of the county’s Church Precinct, Jones explained.
So, the remaining City Council members during their Sept. 3 meeting unanimously approved a resolution calling for the temporary relocation of the Statesboro 1 Precinct from Luetta Moore Park to Statesboro Primitive Baptist Church just for the Nov. 5 District 1 special election.
“By temporarily relocating the city precinct, the voters will be able to vote in both the General Election and the city’s Special Election in one location,” Section 3 of the resolution states in part.
Election offices across the state are preparing for November 5, 2024 General Elections, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Wednesday, the secretary of state’s office worked through some of those scenarios with locals.
At the Chatham County Board of Elections, offices from all across our area are getting prepared and trained for the upcoming November election.
“In the aftermath of 2020, we did see increased tensions. And from that, that was part of what led us to wanting to hold these table top exercises,” said Secretary of State’s Office Elections Director, Blake Evans.
We weren’t allowed to be inside for that portion to keep the classified plans safe, but some of those topics- bomb threats, unruly behavior and campaign clothing at the polls.
“The officers are like, what are we going to do if we get a call out there of an armed group,” said Billy Wooten.
Wooten, the Chatham County supervisor of Elections said, this year so far elections have been smooth.
“We’ve been very fortunate over the years that voters here; they take a professional attitude when they come to vote,” said Wooten.
The Trump-Vance campaign will host a Town Hall in Savannah, according to WTOC.
On Saturday, the Trump campaign will be making a stop in Savannah to connect with voters and rally support.
The Trump campaign is hosting a town hall at the Charles H. Morris Center with prospective voters to explain more about what the former President’s policies would be if he’s elected again.
Former President Trump himself won’t be at the town hall but South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem will be there to speak to attendees about Trump’s policies.
People that are there will have the chance to ask Governor Noem questions about these policies.
Doors open at 2 p.m. and the event itself will start at 3 p.m.
For more information on how to get tickets to the event, click here.
Two presidential candidates disqualified in Georgia will still appear on ballots, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Macon Telegraph.
Two Fulton County judges have disqualified independent Cornel West and socialist Claudia De la Cruz from Georgia’s presidential ballot, narrowing the field of qualified candidates in the Peach State to four.
In decisions handed down Wednesday, the judges ruled that electors for West and De la Cruz improperly filed nominating petitions for their candidates. The ruling reverses a decision by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger late last month.
However, the names of West and De la Cruz still will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot because it’s too late to remove them.
“The deadline to send for ballots for overseas and military voters is days away,” Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr. wrote in the West case. “Given the importance of the 2024 presidential election, the critical importance of voter confidence in elections, and the importance of consistency in ballots … this court ORDERS the secretary of state to post notices complying with the language of this order … and at every polling location to alert all Georgia voters that Dr. Cornel West is not a valid candidate.”
Raffensperger’s Aug. 29 decision permitted six candidates to appear on Georgia’s presidential ballot: West, De la Cruz, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump, Libertarian Chase Oliver and the Green Party’s Jill Stein.
The Democratic Party of Georgia appealed the secretary’s ruling, citing an earlier decision by an administrative law judge taking West and De la Cruz off the ballot.
A poll Quinnipiac University released this week showed West and De la Cruz each with 1% of the Georgia vote. With both running to the left of Harris, Democrats were concerned they could siphon off votes from the vice president in what promises to be a close contest for Georgia’s 16 electoral votes.
Voting rights groups joined a lawsuit over changes made by the State Elections Board, according to the Capitol Beat News Service:
Civil and voting rights groups have filed a “friend of the court” brief in a lawsuit challenging two rules changes the State Election Board’s Republican majority adopted in recent weeks.
The ACLU of Georgia, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law argue the changes threaten to upend Georgia’s longstanding mandatory election certification rules and disenfranchise Georgia voters.
The three Republicans on the five-member board approved rules changes allowing local election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results if they suspect election fraud as well as “examine all election-related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results.”
The lawsuit, filed late last month by the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia, maintains state law requires local election officials to certify election results..
“Democracy is not strengthened by putting certification and the right to vote at risk,” said Poy Winichakul, senior staff attorney for democracy and voting rights with the Southern Poverty Law Center. “These regulations could confuse and delay the final certification of election results – all of which are direct threats to the voting rights of Georgians.”
“County election boards have a clear duty under Georgia law to faithfully report and timely certify their election returns,” added Sophia Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “The State Election Board’s last-minute rules changes inject uncertainty and confusion into certification and threaten the fundamental right to vote.”
The lawsuit contends Republicans could use the new rules so close to the November elections to cast doubt on Georgia’s election results, potentially setting the stage for former President Donald Trump to be declared the winner of the Peach State’s 16 electoral votes, even if Vice President Kamala Harris has won more votes.
Georgia Republican Chairman Josh McKoon has called the changes “common-sense rules” aimed at promoting election integrity.
Former Republican State Rep. Scot Turner (R-Cherokee County) also filed suit, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.
A Georgia-based advocacy group headed by former Republican state Rep. Scot Turner filed suit in Fulton County Wednesday seeking to block rules changes three of the five board members approved in recent weeks allowing local election officials to delay certification of election results if they suspect fraud.
The lawsuit, filed by Eternal Vigilance Action, argues the board violated a state law requiring mandatory certification of election results at the local level, overstepping its legal authority.
“Georgia’s laws written and approved by elected legislators and signed by a governor spell out how to conduct our election, and our state constitution does not allow rules promulgated by unelected appointees on the State Election Board to supersede our laws,” said Turner, the group’s president and CEO.
“With this lawsuit, we look to reestablish the proper role of the State Election Board to promote consistency, accuracy and proper access across 159 different county election boards, but on a broader scale, we’re looking to affirm the separation of powers required by the state constitution. The legislative branch writes the rules; the executive branch carries them out as written.”
Turner is listed separately as a plaintiff in the suit, along with his group and James Hall, an election board member in Chatham County.
The Republican lawsuit comes after a suit the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia filed late last month posing similar arguments. The Democratic suit accuses the three board members of laying the groundwork for delays in certification of election results that could help former President Donald Trump capture Georgia’s 16 electoral votes even if he doesn’t prevail at the ballot box.
Georgia State House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Nweington) announced he will support gun safety legislation, according to the Associated Press via WRDW.
Georgia’s state House speaker says lawmakers in 2025 will consider new policies to foster student mental health, detect guns and encourage people to safely store guns after a school shooting killed four at a high school northeast of Atlanta.
But Republican Jon Burns from Screven County is stopping short of Democratic demands that include universal background checks, a mandate to safely lock up guns and a “red flag” law letting the state temporarily take guns from someone in crisis.
The proposals made Thursday by Burns are the first policy response to the Sept. 4 shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder.
“While House Republicans have already made significant investments to strengthen security in our schools, increase access to mental healthcare, and keep our students safe, I am committed to not only continuing this work but pursuing additional policies that help ensure a tragedy like this never happens in our state again,” Burns wrote.
It’s unclear what response other top Republicans including Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov Burt Jones will desire. Kemp called the shooting “our worst nightmare” hours after the deaths of teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Nine others were injured — seven of them shot.
Democrats have been slamming Republicans, arguing the shooting is an outgrowth of the GOP loosening Georgia’s gun laws.
“What makes this more devastating than it already is is knowing that we had the policy tools to prevent this tragedy from ever happening in the first place,” Rep. Saira Draper of Atlanta said Friday as she and fellow Democrats demanded a special legislative session on gun violence. “And that we did not use them because my Republican colleagues chose to gamble with our children’s lives rather than face the wrath of the gun lobby.”
Burns said he wants to consider information sharing among police, schools and mental health workers, a nod to the fact that Colt and Colin Gray were questioned in 2023 by a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy over an online post threatening a school shooting. Jackson County Sheriff Janis Mangum has said her office didn’t find enough evidence to bring charges. It’s unclear if Colt Gray’s earlier schools were notified about the threats.
“We are aware that a breakdown in communication between school systems and law enforcement officials allowed the shooter’s prior history to slip through the cracks upon his transfer to Apalachee High School,” Burns wrote.
The speaker also said he wants to expand mental health care for students. The state’s voluntary Apex program steers students toward counseling. The program covered 540,000 of Georgia’s 1.75 million students in 2022-2023, about 31%.
Burns also wants to examine ways to catch guns before they enter schools. Some schools are using camera systems and artificial intelligence to try to detect guns instead of metal detectors.
The speaker proposes increasing penalties for threats against schools, saying he wants to crack down on copycat threats seen since the shooting. Criminal penalties would apply only to those charged as adults, and most threat makers have been arrested as juveniles.
Finally, Burns said House Republicans would again promote safe firearm storage. The House passed legislation this year to create a state income tax credit of up to $300 for the purchase of gun safes, trigger locks, other security devices or the costs of courses on safe firearms handling. The Senate preferred a bill exempting gun safes and other safety devices from state sales tax. Both bills failed after the chambers couldn’t agree.
Governor Brian and First Lady Marty Kemp spoke in Macon, according to the Macon Telegraph.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp commented on the shooting at Apalachee High School during a stop in Macon on Thursday.
The comments followed Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns publishing a letter earlier in the day promising that Georgia lawmakers will consider stronger gun control legislation. Burns, a Republican, said the legislation would focus on creating new policies to improve student mental health, detecting guns and encouraging people to store guns safely.
The promise is a sea change for Georgia Republicans, who have traditionally been opposed to gun control legislation. However, it falls short of demands made by Democrats in wake of the shooting, which include universal background checks and “red flag” laws that enable the state to take away guns from people in crisis.
Kemp did not say whether he would support stricter gun laws, and instead emphasized that the shooting is still under investigation. Kemp also said the state government is continuing to offer support to students, families, staff and community members in Winder who were affected by the shooting.
“I’m very interested in making sure we learn all the facts certainly before I try and weigh in on … policy issues,” Kemp said. “We worked last year with the General Assembly last year on a lot of things that the speaker was talking about in his letter, and we are going to continue to do so on this issue and a lot of other issues as we go into the legislative session.”
The Georgia House passed a bill with bipartisan support last year that would set up a $300 tax credit for safe storage devices or gun safety lessons. The bill was tabled in the Georgia Senate and never made it to the governor’s desk.
Asked about Burns’ stance on Wednesday, Kemp told us it was too soon to delve into a policy debate. Earlier that day, he added, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation briefed him on the mass shooting investigation.
Said Kemp: “I’m very interested in making sure we learn all the facts before I try to weigh in on my thoughts on different policy issues. We worked with the General Assembly last year on a lot of the things that the Speaker was talking about in his letter, and we’ll continue to do that on this issue and a lot of other issues as we go into the legislative session.”
We asked him if he thinks there are broader legislative remedies that could have prevented the tragedy.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out — all of the facts of what happened. Personally, I think there’s a lot of people weighing in on the political side of this before they know what the facts are. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to stay focused on helping that community heal, getting the facts in the investigation. And we’ve got plenty of time to talk about potential legislation.”
A Kemp aide said Kemp’s remarks criticizing those “weighing in on the political side” were aimed at Democrats calling for gun control measures and not Burns and his allies.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ordered some charges dropped against four Trump defendants, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.
A Fulton County Superior Court judge Thursday dismissed three counts in District Attorney Fani Willis’ election interference case against former President Donald Trump while leaving most of the counts intact.
Two of the dismissed counts were filed directly against Trump, while the other involved co-defendants Shawn Still, a Republican state senator, and Trump lawyer John Eastman.
Judge Scott McAfee declared that the state does not have the authority to prosecute the three counts because they involved accusations of filing false documents in federal court.
Thursday’s ruling pertained to allegations that Trump’s allies put together a slate of fake presidential electors in Georgia, which met at the state Capitol in December 2020 in an effort to award the state’s 16 electoral votes to Trump, despite recounts and court rulings that showed Biden was the winner.
McAfee ruled that the state lacked jurisdiction to prosecute the three counts he dismissed because a “mechanism of enforcement” was already in place at the federal level to prosecute defendants accused of making false statements under oath in court proceedings. A federal court must have the ability “to police its own proceedings,” he wrote.
The judge’s ruling means five of 13 counts originally lodged against Trump have been set aside. McAfee dismissed six other counts in the case last March, including three against the former president.
Among the charges thrown out then was a count charging Trump in a January 2021 phone call with urging Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the 11,780 additional votes he needed to carry the state over Biden.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) is seeking to block subpoenas by the Georgia Senate’s Special Committee on Investigations, according to the AJC.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wants a judge to block a subpoena that would force her to testify before a state legislative committee. But so far she’s having trouble finding a judge that will hear her case.
Several Fulton County Superior court judges have recused themselves, per the AJC’s Tamar Hallerman. They include Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing Willis’ election interference case against former President Donald Trump. That’s the same case that has raised the ire of some Republicans in the state Senate who now want Willis to come answer questions.
The Georgia Special Senate Committee on Investigations will meet today without Willis, whose lawyer said she will not comply with the subpoena while her court case to block it is still pending.
“I am very disappointed that an elected official such as Ms. Willis, who is elected to enforce the law, believes that she is above it,” said state Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens and chair of the committee.
In Willis’ absence, lawmakers will discuss the ins and outs of the Legislature’s subpoena power, with testimony from former Secretary of the Senate David Cook and Legislative Counsel Stuart Morelli.
Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez and staff prosecutors were ordered to take a course on the state Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
Western Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez and her staff of assistant prosecutors on Wednesday were ordered to complete a course on the correct way to utilize the state’s Crime Victim’s Bill of Rights. The order by Superior Court Judge Lawton Stephens came after the judge ruled that Gonzalez’s office had violated the bill commonly called Marsy’s Law.
The violation of the law was the fourth by the office in the last two years, according to the ruling. Two were in criminal cases in Clarke County and now two in Oconee County.
Stephens noted that the DA’s office admitted it had violated the rights of the victim.
As a result of the repeated violations, Stephens is requiring Gonzalez and her assistants to complete the Victim’s Bill of Rights course offered by the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council. The course, according to the ruling, must be completed within 60 days, which is a deadline of early November.
Gonzalez issued a statement Thursday noting that because they had not notified the victims, she agreed they had violated Mary’s law.
Western Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez is being sued over allegations of civil rights deprivation, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
An Oconee County businessman has filed a civil suit in federal court against Western Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez that alleges she violated his 1st Amendment right to free speech.
“She violated the 1st Amendment rights by blocking people and removing people’s comments and putting restraints on what you could and could not say,” said Kevin Epps, an attorney in Oconee County who has successfully brought four victim’s rights violations against the DA’s office.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District, where federal Judge Tilman Self has scheduled a hearing on Oct. 7 in Athens.
The suit claims Miley’s comments were removed from the Western Circuit DA’s Office official Facebook page and her personal campaign Facebook page. Gonzalez, a Democrat, is opposed in the Nov. 5 election by attorney Kalki Yalamanchili, who is running as an independent. Both have re-election Facebook pages for their campaigns.
The suit states her campaign page is a “limited public forum” on Facebook and that she often republishes the same posts that are placed on the official DA’s office Facebook page.
The suit claims that Gonzalez censored Miley by restricting and removing his comments.
Floyd County Superior Court Senior Judge Walter J. Matthews will hear a lawsuit by the County and local governments over the tax digest, acccording to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.
Judge Walter J. Matthews, a senior judge from the Superior Court of Floyd County, has been assigned to hear a petition from the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners and the city councils of Dalton and Varnell to allow the local governments to collect property taxes based on the 2023 tax digest plus a 10% increase in all assessments.
“The local judges recused themselves,” said Board of Commissioners Chairman Jevin Jensen. “We don’t have a date (for a hearing) yet, but there is a state-required 10-day notice before it can be heard, so that is the quickest it could be heard.”
The local governments filed the petition earlier this week.
“We are grateful to the cities of Dalton and Varnell for their support in filing this temporary collection order,” Jensen said. “Their decision to join our coalition is a testament to their commitment to protecting Whitfield County’s taxpayers. We hope the courts will also recognize the importance of this action.”
The petition said the “preliminary 2024 Whitfield County tax digest is potentially not enforceable or collectable by law as a result of numerous alleged inaccuracies.”
“Unless the court authorizes the immediate, temporary collection of the taxes in this circumstance, the county authority would not be able to maintain an orderly and normal function of county business and governmental affairs,” the petition said.
The petition cites the testimony of Whitfield County Tax Commissioner Danny Sane when the county Board of Assessors obtained a writ of mandamus from Superior Court requiring Sane to sign the 2024 tax digest. Matthews oversaw that hearing as well because the Superior Court judges were presiding over trials.
Robbins said the 10% increase was added “after consultation with the (state) Department of Revenue and to give our local school boards more flexibility.” The commissioners and the Dalton and Varnell city council members will set their government’s budget later this year but the school boards have already set the school system budgets.
Robbins said a 10% increase in the digest does not mean there will be a 10% increase in property taxes.
“Based on prior actions of the Whitfield County commissioners and the Dalton City Council it is highly likely that both will roll back the 10%,” he said.
Leo Technologies is the third company to claim they haven’t been paid by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, according to the AJC.
Another private jail contractor is accusing Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat of racking up hundreds of thousands in unpaid bills, raising mounting concerns about financial decisions and possible mismanagement within the sheriff’s office.
Labat’s office owes software company Leo Technologies about $600,000, according to the company’s CEO, Scott Kernan. LeoTech suspended phone monitoring service to the jail in August after it wasn’t paid by the sheriff for seven months, documents show.
The company is the third private contractor in recent months to publicly accuse the sheriff of nonpayment. Two weeks ago, Strategic Security Corp. told the roughly 80 guards it contracted out to the Fulton Sheriff to not report to the jail and accused Labat of owing the company $1 million.
Former Governor Nathan Deal is taking his new book on the road, according to WTOC.
Former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal has is visiting the state on his children’s book tour.
He made a stop at Mattie Lively elementary school in Statesboro on Thursday.
Deal says he promised his late wife that this is something he would do in his late career.
“I promised her I would. Like most of us I forgot to live up to my promise. But when she got her brain cancer diagnosis I got busy and wrote the original version of the book. She liked it and gave me the thumbs up,” said former Governor Nathan Deal.
He also says the book was inspired by his late wife’s commitment to children’s learning and the desire to contribute to better literacy within the state.
“The proceeds are going into the Deal Foundation that we created when my wife died two years ago and so we are trying to promote literacy by using this book as a vehicle for that and well, we got some colorful characters in the book too!”
Deal says Veto was intentionally written to connect with second though fifth graders.
He also says the book was inspired by his late wife’s commitment to children’s learning and his desire to contribute to better literacy within the state.
“Literacy is one of those building blocks or foundational blocks of our civilization and we need to make sure we promote it. I think sometimes in the technology age in which we live, we sometimes get away from those basic skills of being able to read and write,” said former Governor Nathan Deal.
Although it is meant to be educational for kids, Deal says the book is full of laughs too.
Besides the lighthearted and fun nature of the book, Deal says literacy within Georgia is in a dire state.
“Literacy is one of those building blocks or foundational blocks of our civilization and we need to make sure we promote it. I think sometimes in the technology age in which we live, we sometimes get away from those basic skills of being able to read and write.”
The creation of the book was a team effort between Deal and the illustrator Cheryl Riner Hodge.
“He liked my vision for the art and it seemed to mirror what he had in his mind, and he was very fairly specific. It was great to do,” said Hodge.
Deal and his team will be traveling to several other elementary schools across the state for this book tour.
Taylor County public schools are closed today due to a threat, according to 13WMAZ.
The Taylor County school district has canceled classes for Friday after threats were made towards the school, according to a report from Taylor County schools superintendent Jennifer Albritton.
The first threat came in on Wednesday night, per a Facebook post from the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office.
They say they learned threats were made via social media, and identified a suspect in the case. The report says they interviewed both the suspect and the suspect’s grandparents.
The suspect was then arrested and taken to a youth development center, according to the report.
The school district’s live feed says they became aware of a second threat toward the school on Thursday, and contacted law enforcement.
“At this time, we have no reason to believe these threats are credible,” the feed says.
The LaGrange Police Department took a local student into custody for alleged threats, according to WRBL.
More information has been confirmed regarding the arrest of a 15-year-old arrested on 11 counts of felony terrorist threats.
The LaGrange Police Department says the juvenile has been transported to the Regional Youth Detention Center. In addition to transferring the juvenile, a search was conducted on the juvenile’s place of residence.
According to LPD, no weapons were found during the search.
The charges stem back to threats made through social media to shoot up 11 local schools in the Troup County School System, according to police.
Two teens were in police custody after alleged threats against Cook County schools, according to WALB.
The first threat came on Monday, Sept. 9, as an image shared online said there was a bomb threat directed towards Cook County High School, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. Since the threat was made before school, students were diverted from the building to the stadium while the school was checked.
During the investigation into the threat, the origin of the post was traced back to a 14-year-old student at Lanier County Middle School, per a release.
She is now in custody at the Regional Youth Detention Center on charges of:
• Terroristic threats and acts
• One count of dissemination of information relating to a terroristic threat
• One count of disrupting a public schoolThe second and unrelated threat came on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at Cook Middle School.
With the help of an administrator and a school resource officer, the 13-year-old was taken into custody.
He is now in custody at the Regional Youth Detention Center on charges of:
• Terroristic threats and acts
• One count of dissemination of information relating to a terroristic threat
• One count of disrupting a public schoolAll Miller County Schools were closed on Wednesday following a bomb threat. This incident is not thought to be connected to the Cook County incidents.
All Miller County Schools closed Wednesday following a threat made to the campuses earlier that morning.
According to the school district, they were informed of a threat made to its campus on Facebook Messenger a little before 6 a.m.
An unknown account sent a message to one of the Miller County school system’s Facebook accounts, detailing a bomb threat to the campus, according to the school district.
The Miller County Sheriff’s Office was notified immediately and began investigating.
As a result, the school district canceled school. Students and staff are expected to return to campus Thursday.
Monroe County Comprehensive High School is on alert after threats, according to WALB.
Cahloun County schools were targeted by an online threat, according to the Albany Herald.
The post, which spread across social media Sunday, read “Calhoun Middle/High School is on the list to get shot up, tell your parents ASAP.” School officials and local law enforcement became concerned, but upon further investigation involving the GBI, Calhoun County Sheriff Josh Hilton said the threat was made in reference to schools in the city of Calhoun.
Still, the school and law enforcement took precautions. Hilton said about 20 law enforcement officers from the Sheriff’s Department, Edison Police Department, Georgia State Patrol and the Calhoun County School System Police showed up as students arrived at school Monday. Hilton said they kept officers in and out of the school to maintain a presence throughout the day.
Calhoun County High Principal Tonya Robinson said the school went on a “soft lockdown,” which she called a “code yellow” precaution. School went on as usual, with the added law enforcement presence.
Calhoun County School District is not the only south Georgia school district that responded to a shooting threat in the last week after the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School, a shooting that killed four people and injured nine in Winder.
A 13-year-old was arrested by the GBI in connection to online shooting threats made at Brooks County Middle School on Sept. 5. On Friday, threats were made toward Valdosta Middle School and Crisp County High School. A 17-year-old was arrested on terroristic threats and acts in regard to the Crisp High School threat, and an 11-year-old was arrested on the same charge in connection to the threats made in Valdosta.
Other school districts began investigations into online threats made over the weekend, including Colquitt, Cook, Dougherty, Grady, Mitchell, Tift and Worth counties.
Officials with the Dougherty County School System released the following statement: “The district is aware of a threat circulating around the state on social media. It appears that the schools mentioned were extracted from a list of Title 1 schools on the GaDOE website.
Although we believe this to be a hoax, out of an abundance of caution, we are placing all schools on a soft lockdown posture until the posts are investigated thoroughly. The safety and security of our students, employees and guests is our No. 1 priority.”
An Echols County student was arrested, according to WALB.
On Monday, Sept. 9, officials from the Echols County School System reported that a student received a Snapchat with a list of students and staff at Echols County Schools that were being targeted in a potential shooting.
An investigation by the Echols County Sheriff’s Office led officials to a 15-year-old student who confessed to making the fake threat.
They were arrested and charged with felony false public alarm and false reports of a crime.
Savannah-Chatham County public schools were targeted by 15 hoax threats, according to the Savannah Morning News.
In the week since the Apalachee High School shooting incident, where two students and two teachers were killed, Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) has had about 15 incidents of spoof calls and social media threats that all ultimately turned out to be hoaxes.
Board of Education Police Department (BOEPD) Chief Terry Enoch said 11 of SCCPSS’s 55 schools were impacted by those incidents. Some incidents have been “closed out” while others are still under investigation. Of the threats and hoaxes he said, “We’re taking it very serious, we’re not playing around with it.
Enoch said threats had originated from multiple sources and that they are designed to “cascade anxiety throughout the learning community.” He shared that one incident involved a student’s Snapchat account. Another one was a spoof call “voice over” that stated someone was “on route to a school to shoot it up.” Upon investigation, he said the phone account was determined to come from overseas. He affirmed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are “aggressively pursuing those that are involved in this type of behavior.”
Almost every day since the shooting inside Apalachee High School on September 4, law enforcement agencies have announced the arrest of multiple students tied to school threats.
The Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) confirmed to 11Alive this week that in the 48 hours following the school shooting in Winder, 24 teenagers were booked into their detention facilities. Those facilities are Metro, Gainesville, Martha Glaze, DeKalb and Rockdale.
Many of the close to three dozen arrests include the charge of terroristic threat, which is a felony in Georgia.
Glascock County schools were threatened, according to WJBF.
More threats are being investigated at Glascock County Consolidated School, according to the Glascock County Sheriff’s Office.
According to authorities, the Glascock County Sheriff’s Office was notified by the school administration about two separate possible threats made by students during the school day on Wednesday, September 11th.
According to authorities, after deputies and administrators collected information about each student and incident, it was determined that both students made comments to other students that caused fear and disruption; however, it was reported that neither of the students had any guns or weapons or access to any weapons.
According to the Glascock County Sheriff’s Office, the 14-year-old high school student has been charged with Terroristic Threats and Acts and is detained at the Regional Youth Detention Center in Augusta, Georgia, and the 11-year-old middle school student has been disciplined according to school code of conduct but has not been criminally charged due to insufficient evidence. Authorities say the 11-year-old student will be referred to the Department of Juvenile Justice for services.
This comes after the Glascock County Sheriff’s Office received reports of possible school threats on Thursday, September 5th and Tuesday, September 10th.
Jackson County is investigating more school threats, according to AccessWDUN.
On Wednesday, September 11, 2024, an investigation was opened on another student who sent a Snap Chat to a student at Legacy Knoll Middle School, in reference to a threatening message, according to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page later in the day.
An unidentified student was interviewed, charged and detained at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center Wednesday. Sheriff Janis Mangum says their department has now completed 13 juvenile complaint forms against students since September 4. Four have been detained and several have had Disruption of Public Schools charges filed and others were charged with Terroristic Threats and Acts.
Sheriff Mangum says that when a juvenile is charged, they notify the Department of Juvenile Justice and it is determined by that department if the juvenile will be detained. They continue to investigate the cases and charge when the evidence to do so is available.
Six students were detained after alleged threats against Rome and Floyd County schools, according to the Rome News Tribune.
Six students have been arrested Monday on criminal charges after allegedly posting threatening messages to social media.
Two Pepperell High School students, 2 Coosa High School students as well as a Rome Middle School student and Model Middle School student were arrested Monday, according to police and school officials.
The Rome Police Department received information this morning regarding a threat on social media involving Rome Middle School. After investigating the threat, with the help of Rome City Schools, the authorities identified and arrested a 14-year-old student at Rome Middle School responsible for the threat.
The Coosa HS student was arrested at his home by Floyd County police after credible evidence of a threat was found, Floyd County Schools Superintendent Glenn White said. The school system and police are continuing to investigate any threats they receive. White said they will prosecute students criminally and severely discipline them in the schools as well.
A Coosa High School student, whose name has not been disclosed, is charged with four counts of terroristic threats and acts and four counts of disruption of a public school, according to Floyd County Police Department Public Information Officer Michael Bell.
The Oconee County School District is in discussions with the Sheriff’s office over an increased law enforcement presence on campuses, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
The Oconee County School District and the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office may soon enter negotiations on developing a law enforcement presence at the 12 public schools in the county.
Oconee County currently does not have a school resource officer program in place. Such programs have officers on a school campus throughout the school day.
The joint effort by the two agencies to examine school security falls in the wake of the recent tragic shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, where two teachers and two students were shot and killed. Nine others were wounded.
The State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia approved a new charter school in Muscogee County, according to WTVM.
Parents may have another option for school choice thanks to the recent approval by the State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia. This approval, granted on Wednesday, paves the way for a new type of school in Muscogee County.
While the local school board said no, the State Board of Georgia has given its approval.
With a unanimous vote, the Muscogee County School Board voted to reject Dominion Purpose Academy’s request to open a charter school in Columbus.
The school’s leader presented a proposal, but after the school board rejected it, they decided to take further action.
“We applied to Muscogee County and Muscogee County board denied our proposal,” said Dr. LaTasha Adams, Lead Founder Dominion Purpose Academy. “So after that is for you to actually go to the state level.”
The City of Savannah plans to increase their water capacity by 72% to address rising population, according to the Savannah Morning News.
To keep pace with projected residential and industrial growth, Savannah expects to increase its drinking-water capacity by more than 72% over the next two decades.
The ultimate projected cost of expanding Savannah’s Industrial and Domestic Water Treatment Plant to meet that increase is $500 million, City Manager Jay Melder said Thursday.
About 20 million gallons of the city’s current 58-million-gallon-per-day capacity comes from the underground Floridan Aquifer, which is considered one of the world’s cleanest natural water sources.
The balance of the city’s water supply, pulled from a tributary of the Savannah River, requires extensive – and more expensive – treatment to make it safe to drink and use, as will the added capacity to reach the eventual goal of 100 million gallons per day.
“Groundwater (from the aquifer) requires much less treatment because Mother Nature has done that cleaning,” Melder explained.
To further limit saltwater intrusion into the Floridan near Hilton Head Island, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division is slashing Savannah’s allowable daily withdrawals from the aquifer to 18 million gallons per day beginning in 2025.
The Bibb County Board of Education is considering raising the property tax millage rate, according to the Macon Telegraph.
Bibb County schools’ 2025 millage rate is going to cause property taxes to increase, but it’ll bring millions in for the local school district.
After its third and final public hearing, the Bibb County Board of Education approved the school district’s millage rate for the 2025 fiscal year, leaving the rate unchanged at 14.674 mills.
The Bibb County School District has a history of lowering its millage rate, and the board’s decision on Tuesday evening marks the first time it has not done so since 2016, according to school officials.
School officials said the unchanged rate will add $4.32 million to the district’s fiscal year 2025 budget, at a time when the district’s priority is to support its educational programs, increase student achievement and become more competitive in hiring qualified teachers.
“We know that we need to attract and retain the best educators for our community’s most precious asset: the children of Bibb County,” Superintendent Dan Sims said in a two-minute informative video.
Teachers and staff leaders in Macon face significant discrepancies in pay compared to other Middle Georgia districts. Sims added that maintaining the millage rate won’t solve that problem, but it will help the district to address it more effectively by offering more opportunities and resources for students.
Statesboro City Council hosted a meeting for public feedback on a proposed raise in the property tax millage rate, according to WTOC.
The first public hearing for the proposed 24.5% tax increase took place in city hall where the city manager addressed concerned citizens about exactly why there is a need for this property tax increase and where their money is going.
This significant increase will result in a millage rate of 9.125 mills.
This is a 1.799 mills increase for the city compared to last year.
At the public hearing, the city manager said the taxpayer’s money will be going towards the general fund.
“It’s not something that I take lightly, in making a recommendation to our council. But the difficulty is…do we have employees, and we can’t provide services without having employees,” said City Manager, Charles Penny.
In fact, 63% of the general fund will go towards city personnel like the local police and fire department.
“The Police Department budget is 11 million dollars. If the council were to adopt 9.125 millage increase, that would generate 10 million dollars. So, the police department budget is larger than the amount of revenue that we would receive in this tax increase,” said Penny.
For example, a home valued at 200,000 would have a 140-dollar and 32 cent property tax increase.
United States Department of Transportation Pete Buttigieg discussed Biden Administration spending in Macon, according to 13WMAZ.
Buttigieg sat down over Zoom with 13WMAZ’s morning show anchors Katelyn Heck and Frederick Price to discuss the funding coming to Bibb County in an effort to combat the pedestrian fatality rate which is nearly five times the national average.
What about Gray Highway and East Macon caught the Department of Transportation’s attention that made it a good candidate for this federal funding?
Buttigieg: Well, the reason you have this $5.6 million headed to the Macon area is that there is a clear need from a safety perspective. We lose way too many American lives about the same level as gun violence. We also lose to traffic crashes and it doesn’t have to be that way.
One of the best things we can do is look at the places where we have the most problems and use funding to get a safer design. Now, this is something that people along Gray Highway know all too well, we’ve looked at the data, we’ve seen about five times the national average in terms of the rate of traffic crashes. So clearly, there need to be changes.
And I think residents in the area have known that for a long time, local leaders have known that for a long time, but there hasn’t been the funding to make these kinds of improvements. Really basic things like high visibility, crosswalks, sidewalks, multi-use paths, basically making it safer to be a pedestrian as well as a driver along those roads. That’s what this $5.5 million is going to help do.
Glenn Cook lost his seat on the Satilla Soil and Water Conservation District when he qualified to run for State House District 180, according to The Brunswick News.
Glenn Cook, supervisor of the Satilla Soil and Water Conservation District since 2022, had to resign from his four-year term because he chose to run for the Georgia State House District 180 seat earlier this year.
Heath Holdsworth, who ran against Cook in a four-candidate race, was the only person to qualify for a special election to complete the last two years of Cook’s term.
Cook, in a phone interview Wednesday, said he was surprised to learn he was no longer on the soil and water conservation district board until recently.
“I had no idea I resigned,” he said. “You don’t have an option. I’m pretty certain I had to vacate it.”
Christina Redden, deputy supervisor of the Glynn County Board of Elections and Registration, said there is “no confusion whatsoever” regarding the requirement for Cook to vacate his supervisor’s position when he qualified to run for state representative. Cook lost to incumbent Steven Sainz for the Republican nomination.
Coastal food banks are seeing increased need in their communities, according to The Brunswick News.
The shelves at Sparrow’s Nest, a local food pantry, were full on Thursday, but they will be empty in a week’s time due to the number of people seeking assistance from the charity, volunteers say.
Year-to-date the increase has been 35%, a growth of roughly 650 in 2023 to 850 this year. In 2023, she said the food bank saw a 50% spike in guests from 350 the year before.
In 2022, around 80% of the pantry’s food came from donations and 20% from discounted purchases at Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia or local supermarkets. Now, it’s closer to 50-50.
Sparrow’s Nest gives individuals around 3-4 days’ worth of food at a time, and each person can receive food from the pantry only once a month, Slade said.
The charity tries to help those with a short-term lapse in food availability. An example is if someone needed car repairs, which cleared out their bank account, Sparrow’s Nest would try to help that person with groceries until their next paycheck.
Suspected causes for the heightened numbers are numerous, but most boil down to inflation. When the cost of groceries and gas are up, everything else has to be cut back, said Slade. Rent is also increasing in the Brunswick area, and insurance premiums have risen for many as well.
Jennifer Floyd, area director at Second Harvest, said grocery bills are simply more expensive.
“We have seen over the last two weeks an all-time high — a 62% increase in grocery bills,” Floyd said.
Another trend Anna Rhodes, another volunteer, sees is a rise in the number of grandparents bringing their grandchildren, either because they’re raising them or taking care of them while their parents are at work.
Coastal seafood purveyor complained about the regulatory climate, according to WTOC.
A lack of dock availability, lost wages, and foreign imported shrimp, all issues facing local seafood farmers.
Everything from gas prices to permit issues, WTOC has kept you informed on how the industry is changing.
Now many local seafood farmers we spoke with say they’re being forced to sell their boats and get out of the industry entirely.
Restrictions and permits are also influencing the industry heavily in Georgia.
“None of these restaurants around here sell fresh local shrimp. They do not, it’s all imported. Everything’s imported,” said Commercial fisherman and veteran, John C. Hope. “It hurts my heart. But what are you gonna do? You either get out of the business or not. I’m so deep in debt right now it’s unreal. More than likely, I’m fixing to have to take my shrimping boat out there and anchor it up and live on it, if I can’t sell it.”
“I spent 15 years running shrimp boats, so I know what it’s like. But, unfortunately, I don’t see it getting much better anytime soon because a lot of the imported shrimp and farmed shrimp, foreign countries have learned how to produce farmed shrimp really inexpensively. A lot of people don’t, can’t differentiate,” said Charlie Phillips the Owner of Phillips Seafood and Sapelo Sea Farms.
“A lot of the local shrimp growers actually have gone to trying to retail their own shrimp or sell their own shrimp straight to the restaurants. It’s been really tough on a lot of them,” added Phillips.
Phillips operates the largest clam farm on the East Coast, south of Virginia.
He recently got his oyster permit after waiting two years. He said waiting on the Corp of Engineers has been a nightmare.
“If somebody told me they wanted to come to Georgia and they were going to start a business, but they needed to get permits from the Corps of Engineers to do it, I’d tell them to go to another state,” said Phillips.
“We got to slow the imports down for us Americans to go back to work and supply seafood to the country,” said Hope. “The imports are what’s killed the industry. So basically, here we are sitting with a boat that we’re not able even to work anymore. And I’m trying to sell it to get out of the business because the business has gone downhill so bad that, and the government’s not helping us. What are the people supposed to do when there’s no work? If you’ve been a commercial fisherman most of your life, how are you going to have to take on a new occupation?”
Both Hope and Phillips are asking lawmakers for major help before the industry goes under entirely.
“South Carolina right now catches more shrimp than the state of Georgia. Because their sounds are open. They shut our sounds down in Georgia,” said Hope. “Brian Kemp needs to look and see what’s going on with the fishing industry. Not just slap ‘em & give them a little tack and let them go, actually help the people,” said Hope.
“People like me that do clams and oysters, we just like cleaner and simpler regulations, streamlined permits,” said Phillips. “If they can streamline some regulations, it would help. Like I said, I don’t know that anybody can get the Corps to change. I talked to Senator Ossoff’s office yesterday about this issues,” said Phillips.
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