USS Constitution earned the nickname “Old Ironsides” in battle against the British ship Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia on August 19, 1812. Launched in 1797, Constitution is today the oldest commissioned vessel in the United States Navy. Live oak from St. Simons Island were cut and milled for timber used in the constructions of Constitution. From a 1977 New York Times article:
The Constitution won her way into Americans’ hearts in 1812, when she defeated the British Guerriere off Nova Scotia in an exchange of broadsides. The spirit of the Constitution crew was noted by the Guerriere’s commander, James Dacres, who boarded the Constitution to present his sword in surrender.
“I will not take your sword, Sir,” the captain of the Constitution, Isaac Hull, replied. ”But I will trouble you for your hat.”
In the battle, a sailor — whether British or American is disputed by historians — is said to have cried out, ”Huzzah, her sides are made of iron!” as he watched an English cannonball bounce off the side of the Constitution. It was the birth of her nickname.
Part of the ship’s secret lay in the wood used in the design by Joshua Humphreys. He picked live oak, from St. Simons Island, Ga. The wood has proved so strong and resistant to rot that the original hull is intact, said Anne Grimes Rand, curator of the Constitution Museum in Charlestown, Mass.
The Georgia Department of Insurance was created on August 19, 1912 when Governor Joseph Brown signed legislation regulating companies selling policies in the states.
Governor Nathaniel Harris signed the first state law requiring school attendance for children 8-14 years of age on August 19, 1916; on the same day, Harris also signed legislation authorizing women to practice law in Georgia.
“Georgia” was designated the official state song on August 19, 1922 with Gov. Thomas Hardwick’s signature on a joint resolution passed by the General Assembly; in 1979, “Georgia On My Mind,” replaced it.
Adolf Hitler became President of Germany on August 19, 1934.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency supported a coup in Iran that restored the Shah of Iran on August 19, 1953.
On August 19, 1976, President Gerald R. Ford was nominated for President by the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. Ford received 1,157 (52.6%) delegates to 1,087 for Ronald Reagan (47.4%). Georgia’s 48 delegates voted for Reagan on the first ballot.
On August 19, 1981, President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
On the same day, Dr. Betty Siegel became the first female President of a state college or university in Georgia when she was named President of Kennesaw College on August 19, 1981; under her leadership, it became Kennesaw State University in 1996. Siegel served until 2006. Kennesaw State was recently named the 4th best college for food in the nation.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Texas-based Shipley Do-Nuts is eyeing Georgia for expansion, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
Shipley Do-Nuts CEO Flynn Dekker told Nation’s Restaurant News earlier this year that growth for the Texas-based company will “ramp up significantly” in 2024.
Shipley sells more than 60 types of doughnuts; coffee hot or iced, part of an expanding beverage menu; and kolaches, a type of pastry brought to America by Czech immigrants and that gained huge popularity in Texas. Shipley’s kolaches are meat-filled and savory.
For now, there are more than 350 locations across 12 states. The company hopes to attract more franchisees with its reported growth performance and a lower investment threshold for entrepreneurs who want to bring multiple Shipleys to places such as Augusta.
Looking ahead, “Shipley is focusing on growing in Georgia, with a potential for 90 units in the Atlanta area, plus opportunities in Savannah, Augusta and Columbus,” the company said in a statement released Aug. 14.
Republican United States Senator and Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance (OH) will campaign in Valdosta on Thursday, according to the AJC.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance will headline a rally in Valdosta on Thursday, the same night as Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepts the Democratic nomination at the party’s Chicago convention.
The trip, confirmed by campaign officials, will be Vance’s second visit to Georgia since Donald Trump tapped the Ohio Republican as his No. 2. Vance’s last visit in early August was overshadowed by Trump’s renewed feud with Gov. Brian Kemp and other state Republicans.
Valdosta is the heart of a deep-red stretch of south Georgia where Trump and his allies are hoping to drive up conservative turnout. Trump has held several rallies in the area over his last two campaigns, but this is the first of this cycle.
State legislators are considering how to promote the timber industry, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Valdosta Daily Times.
Advanced genetics leading to fast-growing trees and a favorable climate have combined to make Georgia the No.-1 forestry state in the nation, a $42 billion industry responsible for 143,000 jobs.
But with pulp and paper mills going out of business in large numbers due to intense foreign competition, demand for timber is on the decline. As a result, prices for wood are down to levels not seen since the 1970s.
Those are the dynamics behind a push to find new markets for Georgia’s oversupply of wood in innovative clean energy industries ranging from cleaner aviation fuel to mass-timber building construction to electric-vehicle batteries.
“Georgia is uniquely positioned,” Marshall Thomas, president of F&W Forestry Services in Albany, told members of a state Senate study committee Aug. 13. “We can add jobs and tax base and position Georgia as a leader in the transition to a green economy.”
The Senate Advancing Forest Innovation in Georgia Study Committee was formed this year to look for ways the state can encourage investment in sustainable forest products that will generate demand in the future.
Senate President Pro Tempore John Kennedy, R-Macon, the committee’s chairman, said he saw one of those options on a state-sponsored trade mission to France last year: sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a biofuel that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 85% compared with conventional petroleum-based jet fuel.
The European Union will require commercial aircraft to burn at least 6% SAF by 2030, a percentage that will increase gradually each year until it reaches 70% in 2050.
The study committee will consider how the state could help foster innovative uses for wood products over the course of several meetings this summer and fall.
The General Assembly has become more reluctant in recent years to approve tax credits aimed at supporting various industries because of the loss in tax revenue. But tax credits offer an opportunity to open up innovative markets that would support new forestry jobs, said Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell, a member of the study committee and chairman of the Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee.
“We’re growing 50% more trees than we’re utilizing,” Goodman said. “We’ve got to create markets.”
Spillers said state policy makers shouldn’t forget about existing industries operating in the forestry space in the rush to foster innovative uses of Georgia’s wood. For example, pulp mills can be retrofitted to produce sustainable aviation fuel, he said.
“We can support our existing businesses,” Lowrimore told study committee members. “But we also have the capacity to do more. … To get where we want to be, you as state leaders have to be committed to make it happen.”
The committee is due to report its findings to the full Senate by Dec. 1.
A bronze statue of the late Civil Rights Movement leader and Congressman John Lewis (D-Atlanta) has replaced a momument to confederate soldiers in DeKalb County, according to the Associated Press via WRDW.
A large bronze statue of the late civil rights icon leader and Georgia congressman John Lewis was installed Friday, at the very spot where a contentious monument to the confederacy stood for more than 110 years in the town square before it was dismantled in 2020.
Lewis was known for his role at the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement and urged others to get in “good trouble” for a cause he saw as vital and necessary. In DeKalb County where the Confederate monument stood for more than a century, protesters have invoked “good trouble” in calling for the swift removal of the obelisk.
Back in 2020, the stone obelisk was lifted from its base with straps amid jeers and chants of “Just drop it!” from onlookers in Decatur, Georgia, who were kept at a safe distance by sheriff’s deputies. The obelisk was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1908.
Groups like the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights and Hate Free Decatur had been pushing for the monument to be removed since the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The monument was among those around the country that became flashpoints for protests over police brutality and racial injustice, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. The city of Decatur then asked a Georgia judge to order the removal of the monument, which was often vandalized and marked by graffiti, saying it had become a threat to public safety.
The statue of Lewis will be officially unveiled on Aug. 24.
Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said the Harris-Walz campaign is focused on winning Georgia in November, according to the AJC.
Harrison spoke to the “Politically Georgia” crew before the convention got underway on Monday. He said that Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now at the top of the Democratic Party’s ticket, has made Georgia a priority.
“Harris has been to Georgia (more than) 14 times, (at least) six times just this year,” he said. “And so it is a really, really important part of our formula for getting to 270 votes.”
“So we’re just clicking on all cylinders. Now, on the flip side, the Republicans are engaged in their own civil war in Georgia,” Harrison said.
“The (former) president is constantly dragging the governor in that state. The former lieutenant governor, a Republican, is supporting Kamala Harris in the presidential race,” he added. “So Democrats are all in formation, to quote Beyoncé. We are moving along.”
Evangelicals for Harris is also targeting Georgia voters for the Democratic ticket, according to the AJC.
“Georgia is definitely one of our target states,” said [founder Rev. Jim] Ball.
While the campaign for Harris isn’t likely to garner a majority of evangelical voters, whatever she can siphon away from former President Donald Trump could keep her competitive in Georgia, said Gbemende E. Johnson, an associate professor of political science at the University of Georgia.
During the 2020 election, Georgia was a key battleground state credited with helping President Joe Biden defeat then President Donald Trump, ending his run for a second consecutive term. Biden won Georgia by 11,779 votes.
“Trends and and history show that evangelicals are more likely to vote Republican; however, no group is a complete monolith,” Johnson said.
The work to appeal to evangelicals will be a tall task for Democrats.
Many conservative Christian leaders are reluctant to publicly voice their support for Harris over concerns about what their fellow church members, relatives and friends may think. At least one person who took part in Wednesday’s call made reference to the risks taken by publicly speaking out.
According to Edison Research’s exit polls, in 2020, an estimated 76% of white evangelicals voted for Trump. Another poll, the AP VoteCast survey, found that 81% of white evangelicals voted for Trump in that election, compared to 18% who supported Biden.
The AJC wrote that conservative Christian leaders are afraid to publicly voice their support, but that assumes such people exist, which I have not seen evidence of.
Republican members of the State Election Board face outside pressure after recent proposed rule changes, according to the AJC.
Georgia House Democrats prepared an urgent appeal Monday to House Speaker Jon Burns to remove his appointee to the board. Fulton County’s former elections board chief filed an ethics complaint against the trio that alleges a series of violations.
And Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, blasted pending proposals up for debate by the five-member board as a last-minute “effort to impose new rulemaking” that could cause chaos.
Meanwhile, the trio was dealt a blow on Monday when Attorney General Chris Carr issued a formal opinion finding that the board can’t order him to reopen an investigation into Fulton County’s 2020 recount because state law doesn’t empower the board to do so.
The increasing scrutiny comes weeks after Trump lauded the trio at his Atlanta rally, calling them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory” to deafening applause from thousands of supporters.
The three board members — Janelle King, Rick Jeffares and Janice Johnston — comprise a majority bloc that has plowed ahead with election rules changes less than two months before early voting begins.
Cathy Woolard, the former chair of Fulton’s elections board, cited Jeffares in an ethics complaint that alleged the three “have created, at minimum, the appearance that their actions are intended to advance their own political preference.”
“Taken together,” she wrote to Gov. Brian Kemp, “these actions pose a serious risk of creating confusion about the rules governing the rapidly approaching election and undermining voter confidence in the integrity of Georgia’s elections.”
And more than a dozen House Democrats pressed Burns in a letter to remove King, a media personality the speaker appointed earlier this year who replaced a mainstream Republican who often opposed sweeping new rules changes.
The three election board members have argued they aren’t playing politics. King said she’s supporting rules that will increase “election integrity” regardless of Trump’s praise.
An AJC review showed at least 19 county election board members in Georgia have opposed certifying elections since the 2020 election, which Trump falsely claimed was “stolen.”
The board could go further by passing a slate of new rules Monday, including one that would require three poll workers to count ballots on election night to make sure they match the number of ballots recorded by voting machines.
Another proposal up for debate would impose a new requirement for county election boards to review information such as lists of voters by ballot type and comparisons of ballots to voter check-ins.
Savannah Democrats are rallying around their nominees, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Letha Moore, local activist and retired educator, has a personal connection to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which included investments in health care, prescription drugs, climate change and tax enforcement. On its second anniversary, Moore, Georgia Rep. Edna Jackson and 5th District Alderwoman Estella Shabazz reflected on its impact, while advocating for support for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the presumptive Democratic nominees for President and Vice President.
“I cannot emphasize how the IRA $35 insulin cap has helped my sister, who’s diabetic,” Moore said. “Managing her condition means dealing with high monthly prescription costs, and that’s a reality for many Georgians ― to choose between affording the medication we need and putting our health at risk.”
According to Shabazz, lowering the cost of many of the most expensive prescription drug prices will benefit hundreds of thousands of Georgia seniors, providing them with access to life-saving medications. Throughout the conference, each speaker touched briefly on Donald Trump and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which would increase costs for seniors and others with Medicare.
“This is life-changing,” Shabazz said. “Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are promising, when you get sick, you can get the care you need without breaking the bank. When we send them to the White House in November, know that Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will work every day to protect Medicare and affordable health care for all Americans.”
The overarching theme of the press conference was an emphasis on maintaining support for the Harris-Walz campaign going into the Democratic National Convention, which kicks off Monday, Aug. 19, in Chicago, and all the way to the polls on Nov. 6.
“We’re hoping that everybody will all come together as they are for everything we’re doing to get this election, a winning election moving forward,” Johnson said. “We, as Chatham County, know how we are. We know we work together as a team and come together. We’re going to be hitting the streets, people’s doors and making sure people are still registered to vote in this election.”
Forsyth County Commissioners adopted a proclamation declaring August 31st as Overdose Awareness Day, according to AccessWDUN.
The American Medical Association (AMA) defines addiction as a “treatable chronic medical disease.”
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that in 2023, roughly 110,000 deaths were caused by overdosing. Over 2,600 of those were in the state of Georgia, or roughly seven a day.
The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners approved the new day at an Aug. 15 meeting.
In a press release, officials said: “The Board of Commissioners encourages all Forsyth County residents to learn about this disease and support the individuals and families affected by it.”
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that contractors to government agencies are bound by the Open Records Act, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Albany Herald.
The high court’s unanimous decision overturned a lower court’s dismissal last August of an Open Records lawsuit filed against a Georgia Tech professor for failing to respond to an open-records request for information concerning his service to the university as a private contractor.
The professor had argued that the legal obligation to produce public records lies solely with a public agency, not with an individual employee or private contractor.
The Georgia First Amendment Foundation filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the court to overturn rulings of both the Georgia Court of Appeals and, before that, a Fulton County trial court.
“The Georgia Supreme Court is a welcome confirmation of Georgia’s commitment to open access to public records,” Sarah Brewerton-Palmer, vice president of the foundation’s board of directors, said. “Government contractors are often the only ones who have copies of the records they create during their work. Forcing the public to go through a government agency to get those records would in many cases mean that the records are never actually provided.”
The Georgia Supreme Court sent the case back to the trial court for further proceedings.
I would expect this to place upward pressure on the pricing of contracts with Georgia government agencies.
Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Don Kelly discussed his recusal from a potential prosecution of county employees, according to WTVM.
Kelly telling us this was procedure after the three top ranking officials within city government are under the microscope of the investigation.
“That’s the last that we have any contact with the matter, after that the prosecuting attorney’s council to tell us what would be best in this situation,” says Kelly. While the [recusal] letter only gives titles, we know the finance director is Angelica Alexander, human resource manager is Reather Hollowell. The letter does also say one Deputy City Manager, we have two city mangers but it’s unclear which one is a part of the investigation.
We reached out to the prosecuting attorneys’ council of Georgia for comment on the letter and it reads: “Chattahoochee District Attorney Don Kelly has recused his office from the investigation of Columbus consolidated government employees. In accordance with law, the executive director of PAC is to appoint a prosecutor to the matter. He may appoint a private attorney, an elected district attorney, an elected solicitor-general, the attorney general or himself to the case. At this time, Mr. Skandalakis has asked his staff to conduct a preliminary investigation into the matter to determine the best course of action.”
Kelly says the people of Columbus need to know no charges have been filed yet. “There’s no arrest, there’s no charges, nobody’s been charged with anything, there’s just an investigation going on,” says Kelly.
A letter from Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Don Kelly shows he has asked that his office be recused from the investigation, and confirms the local sheriff’s office has been investigating. Kelly wrote the letter last month to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia.
“I have been contacted by Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office regarding an investigation involving possible criminal acts of certain Columbus Consolidated Government employees,” Kelly wrote in the letter.
“I do not feel comfortable handling this case because these three individuals make decisions about employment and budget issues for my office,” Kelly wrote in the letter.
Kelly elaborated on his recusal request in a statement Friday.
“Last month, I was consulted regarding a ongoing investigation,” he said. “Because our office is, in part, funded by the City of Columbus, I concluded that any legal advice or consultation should come from an outside attorney to avoid the appearance of impropriety. At that point, I referred the matter to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council.”
The Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety said distracted driving caused more than 50% of car wrecks, according to WALB via WTVM.
According to a report, 53% of crashes come from distracted driving.
Distracted driving is defined by the Georgia Traffic Safety Fact Sheet as any time a driver diverts their attention from driving to focus on anything else. Most people associate phones with distracted driving but this study shows that it can be anything visually, manually or cognitively that can distract the driver.
According to data from the Georgia Traffic Safety Fact Sheet, 13% of people killed or seriously injured in a confirmed distraction-related crash were pedestrians or bicyclists.
26% of all distraction-related motor vehicle crashes involved drivers 15-24 years old.
So, this data shows us that not all distracted driving can involve a cell phone. You can be driving and start looking at a sign for too long, didn’t see that red stop light, and ran through the intersection anyway, changing your music on the Apple Play in your car.
Driving is serious, and distracted driving is dangerous.
The Bulloch County Board of Education may in the future consider additional property tax exemptions, according to the Statesboro Herald.
While moving forward with “tax increase” hearings required for an incomplete rollback of their 2024 property tax millage rate, the Bulloch County Board of Education and Superintendent Charles Wilson have begun looking into the possibility of a future homestead exemption, possibly for senior citizens.
Creating a county-specific exemption, if the board chooses to do so, could take “about a two-year process,” Wilson said. In discussion with citizens during the Thursday evening, Aug. 15 tax hearing, he noted that Robert Fisher, deputy chief appraiser for the Bulloch County Board of Tax Assessors, is slated to talk to the school board during its 6:30 p.m. Aug. 22 “work session” regular meeting.
“He’s coming next week to talk to the board at our work session, to spend time with us educating the board on tax exemptions, how they’re designed, how you can go about pursuing them, what the processes are,” Wilson said. “I think the board is interested in that.”
One of the things [District 1 BOE member-elect Lannie] Lanier called for, as have other board-members elect and other Bulloch residents, was “tax relief for senior citizens.”
“That is important because you’ve got seniors living on fixed incomes and the taxes go up and up and up,” Lanier said. He called the possibility of seniors being taxed out of their homes “a real situation.”
Wilson noted that when a senior exemption from school tax was discussed in previous years, some other citizens had suggested that “maybe that’s not the way to look at it, maybe it should be income-based because there’s a lot of senior citizens have wealth; a lot of young people don’t.”
An exemption could include age as well as an income in some way, he said, and told Lanier, who will take his seat on the board at the beginning of January, that he will probably be there in time to help make a decision on that. But Wilson said his understanding of what might be done has expanded after conversations with the county tax appraisers.
“I think what we’re going to hear from them is, the board can devise its own tax exemption,” Wilson said. “Now, it has to be approved by the voters of Bulloch County.”
Dalton City Council will host public meetings about proposed revisions to their alcohol ordinance, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.
The proposed changes were presented for a first reading at the council’s meeting on Aug. 5. They cannot become law until they are presented for a second reading at a future meeting when they can be voted on by the council members. The meeting was scheduled for 1 p.m. to avoid conflict with lunch and dinner rushes for business owners to allow as many people as possible to attend.
The current ordinance is out of compliance with state law that requires cities of Dalton’s size to stop alcohol sales at 2 a.m. The new ordinance would correct that. The new ordinance would include other changes for businesses with alcoholic beverage licenses, including requiring those businesses to have camera systems at points of public entry and also to use ID scanners to screen for underage customers. It would also require business owners and all employees who handle alcohol to complete an alcohol server training course. The change to the serving time would take effect immediately upon the ordinance being approved by the council. The other provisions would not take effect until January 2025 to allow businesses time to come into compliance.
“This (proposed ordinance) has gone through many edits, but one of the things that we’re focusing on is safety,” Mayor Annalee Harlan Sams said after the first reading of the ordinance. City leaders and staff have been working to revise the ordinance since a public work session in March.
“We also have to make changes to our ordinance to comply with state law,” Sams said. “I think it’s helpful if the community understands that some of these (changes) are not up for debate (because they are required by state law).”
Port Wentworth City Council voted to contract with the Greater Savannah Black Chamber of Commerce for tourism promotion, according to the Savannah Morning News.
After ending its partnership with the Port Wentworth Chamber of Commerce (PWCC) again in late June, Port Wentworth City Council unanimously approved an agreement with the Greater Savannah Black Chamber of Commerce for tourism services at its meeting Thursday night.
According to City Manager Steve Davis, the city was looking at some “diversification” with its destination marketing organization (DMO), the entity that promotes tourism and economic growth in the region and is usually partially funded through the local government by a portion of hotel-motel taxes.
An increase in hotel-motel tax collection was one of the reasons the city said that they were ending its partnership with the PWCC. In a letter presented to the PWCC, the city stated that the termination of the contract was due to the Georgia Legislature voting to increase hotel-motel tax collection from 6 percent to 8 percent, which would “reset the distribution of funds.”
Davis also said instead of working with one DMO as they had since contracting with the PWCC in 1999, they would be working with two, so the GSBCC would not be getting the full allotment of hotel-motel funds. The agreement states that the city will make payments to them equal to 7.08 percent of the taxes levied and collected, but could make other or additional payments.
“We wanted to split it up and go with the Black Chamber to have some minority participation and go after more black-owned and female-owned businesses,” Davis said. “It was an opportunity for the city to spread out and use more resources and spread our footprint. It’s very clear that we’ve got a very diverse community here and they need representation.”
Some Bibb County public schools remain closed today due to electric service outages from Hurricane Debby, according to 13WMAZ.
Bibb County School District says Howard Middle School and Howard High School will be closed Monday due to the campuses being without electricity.
Only Howard Middle and High Schools are impacted. All other Bibb County schools and facilities will operate normally.
The Bibb County School District spoke with Georgia Power throughout the night, and power is estimated to be returned to the campuses by the end of the day. They anticipate resuming normal operations for the Howard Middle and Howard High on Tuesday.
Some Bulloch County farmers face challenges from Hurricane Debby, according to WTOC.
One field in Bulloch County was completely flooded and underwater just last week during tropical storm Debby.
Now, one farmer, David Crumley says that he is left with decisions on how to salvage his crops.
As much as farmer David Cromley of Kairos Farms prepared once he heard a storm was approaching, he says he still was not expecting that heavy rainfall.
“There is a drain at the bottom of the field that normally handles the excess amount of rainfall but whenever you are getting 12 inches of the span of just a few days, you know it’s just overwhelming,” said Cromley.
This field that is part of Kairos Farms is home to the beloved peanut crops in Brooklet. Over the span of a week, Cromley says this field received up to 19 inches of rain.
The peanut crops were completely submerged, leaving some unsalvageable. Yet, Cromley says it still could have been worse.
“Whenever you are looking at commodity prices across the board that are pretty low, you know those kinds of prices that are not great right now, whenever you have something like the storm that can come in and impact your yield whenever you need that yield to make up for the bad prices…that’s when it really hurts,” Cromley described.
Cromley and other farmers across the county are assessing each of their crops to see which ones they can harvest.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service announced tax relief for some people affected by Hurricane Debby, according to the Moultrie Observer.
The Internal Revenue Service has announced tax relief for individuals and businesses in Georgia that were affected by severe storms and flooding that began on Aug. 4.
These taxpayers now have until Feb. 3, 2025, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments, according to the IRS announcement last week.
Following the disaster declaration issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, individuals and households that reside or have a business in Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks, Bryan, Bulloch, Burke, Camden, Candler, Charlton, Chatham, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Cook, Crisp, Decatur, Dodge, Echols, Effingham, Emanuel, Evans, Glynn, Grady, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Lanier, Laurens, Liberty, Long, Lowndes, McIntosh, Mitchell, Montgomery, Pierce, Richmond, Screven, Tattnall, Telfair, Thomas, Tift, Toombs, Treutlen, Turner, Ware, Wayne, Wheeler, Wilcox, and Worth counties qualify for tax relief.
The declaration permits the IRS to postpone certain tax-filing and tax-payment deadlines for taxpayers who reside or have a business in the disaster area. For instance, certain deadlines falling on or after Aug. 4, 2024, and before Feb. 3, 2025, are granted additional time to file through Feb. 3, 2025. As a result, affected individuals and businesses will have until Feb. 3, 2025, to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period.
If an affected taxpayer receives a late filing or late payment penalty notice from the IRS that has an original filing, payment or deposit due date that falls within the postponement period, the taxpayer should call the telephone number on the notice to have the IRS abate the penalty.
The IRS automatically identifies taxpayers located in the covered disaster area and applies filing and payment relief. But affected taxpayers who reside or have a business located outside the covered disaster area should call the IRS disaster hotline at 866-562-5227 to request this tax relief. Disaster area tax preparers with clients located outside the disaster area can choose to use the Bulk requests from practitioners for disaster relief option, described on IRS.gov.
Some groups that monitor sea turtle nesting want stricter rules on beachfront lighting, according to The Brunswick News.
Two sea turtle nests hatched recently on St. Simons Island, but the tiny baby turtles made a mistake as they emerged.
They crawled toward the dunes instead of toward the light of the horizon over the Atlantic Ocean, misoriented by the lights of beachfront development.
Catherine Ridley, who heads the St. Simons Island Sea Turtle Project and is vice president of education and communications for the environmental advocacy group One Hundred Miles, said the misorientations illustrate the need for Glynn County to complete its zoning ordinance rewrite. It includes new language about beachfront lighting that she and other turtle monitors and advocates are preparing comments on in hopes of creating a set of rules that better protect wildlife like nesting sea turtles and their hatchlings.
“This is the perfect example of why the new ordinance is necessary, and while it ties into the zoning ordinance, it’s also important for everyone to understand the implications of their own actions on and near the beach,” Ridley said.
The most recent draft of the ordinance includes nine conditions governing beachfront lighting. Those conditions include how lights visible from the beach are positioned, the color of light they produce, and rules for how lights are used in swimming pools, on decks, and in parking areas, among others. The conditions would apply during sea turtle nesting season, which is from May 1 to Oct. 31.
The light of the horizon guides [sea turtle hatchlings] into the ocean. When the light from beachfront development is too bright, the hatchlings may mistake it for the horizon and crawl the wrong way, putting their lives in peril, Ridley said.
Nesting sea turtles can become misoriented as well or abandon their nesting attempt if lights are too bright, she added.
“We often talk about the problem as light pollution, but it’s more accurate to think of it as a form of habitat loss because artificial lighting eliminates large areas of otherwise suitable nesting habitat,” Ridley said. “I’m often asked why we don’t have more nests on St. Simons, and the abundance of artificial lighting on our beaches is a big part of the answer.”
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