August 28, 1929 saw Governor Lamartine Hardman sign a Constitutional Amendment authorizing the levy of a state income tax.
On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream Speech” on the Mall in Washington, DC.
An obscure college professor named Newt Gingrich began his political career on August 28, 1974, as he kicked off his first campaign against Congressman Jack Flynt.
On August 28, 2008, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked the accreditation of the Clayton County Public Schools. Later that day, Governor Sonny Perdue removed four members of the Clayton County Board of Education upon the recommendation of an administrative law judge.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Albany hosted a reenactment of the 1963 March on Washington, according to the Albany Herald.
The massive protest marked a significant part of the Civil Rights Movement—with over 200,000 people showing up to March on Washington on August 28, 1963.
The march reenactment will start at 8:30 a.m. at the Albany Civic Center and end in front of the Albany Civil Rights Museum on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023.
“We are prepared. We’re going to make this thing happen. If they sacrificed and did it in ‘63 in an outdoor setting in August, then we can sacrifice and do the same thing,” said Tyler Harris, the event organizer.
“A lot of things that transpired originally happened here, and so that’s why it’s important to come out and commemorate and celebrate this wonderful occasion, and pass it on to the next generation so they will have an appreciation for what has happened. So we won’t have to repeat what did happen.”
“There’s no doubt that the March on Washington was one of the seminal events of the Civil Rights Movement. But particularly for Albany, it was on the heels of the Albany Movement,” [Albany Mayor Bo] Dorough said. “So it is important for us to both commemorate this event and to recognize the sacrifices of those who were present that day and were warriors in the Civil Rights Movement.”
Georgia and South Carolina law enforcement will team up to promote sober driving this week, according to WJBF.
Law enforcement agencies in Georgia and South Carolina are teaming up, starting Monday, August 28, to keep roads safer with “Hands Across the Border.” It marks the end of the “Sober or Slammer” campaign to keep drunk and impaired drivers off the roads.
“40 percent of those who were killed in Labor Day holidays were between the ages of 16 and 34. That’s our future. That’s the people that are–when I’m gone, when you’re gone, those are the people that will be here carrying on for us. And we just want everybody to get there and be mindful,” explained Roger Hayes, with the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
“This is our 32nd year. You look at stuff every year. you look at it and say ‘Is it successful?’ Law enforcement actually looks forward to ‘Hands Across the Border.’ That time to get together. And we look forward to trying to make sure that people get home safe,” said Hayes.
U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Albany) and Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton) question a decision by the USPS to downsize a Macon processing center, according to the Macon Telegraph.
The move, which would eliminate dozens of local jobs, likely means a package sent from one Macon address to another would first be shipped to Atlanta for processing.
Rep. Sanford Bishop and Rep. Austin Scott are questioning the decision. In a joint letter to the U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the Congressmen wrote that downsizing the Macon center would “undoubtedly lead to decreased service standards” and the loss of “middle-class jobs.”
“We are concerned that the transformation of the Macon P&DC into a Local Processing Center (LPC), which, as we understand, would handle only letters and flat mail rather than packages, could lead to further customer disruptions in rural towns and small urban communities that depend on the Postal Service the most,” Bishop and Scott wrote.
The proposed move is part of the “Delivering for America Plan,” a 10-year plan from the U.S. Postal Service to “achieve financial stability and service excellence.” Processing centers in Columbus, Albany and Valdosta have already been closed.
“How might that affect delivery times of local packages, such as the shipment of prescription drugs, within Macon-Bibb County and its immediate surrounding areas?” the Congressmen asked DeJoy.
Two Camilla City Council members who were removed by a judge, continue to participate in municipal decisions, according to the Albany Herald.
[T]hat ruling has been ignored, as council members Ventarra Pollard and Corey B. Morgan have continued to attend and vote at meetings. And the latter qualified to run for another four-term during the qualifying period this week.
The issue could be settled on Friday, when the parties are scheduled to return to court for a contempt hearing in front of the senior judge from another circuit who heard the case. That hearing has been set for 1 p.m. at the Mitchell County Courthouse.
The judge ruled in July that the evidence showed that Pollard “is domiciled and resides in Albany” and that Morgan actually lives in Pelham.
The two have attended meetings as usual since that time, and in the first meeting after they were removed from office on July 20, voted in opposition to an agenda item dealing with their status on the council.
“It’s ridiculous,” Albany attorney Chris Cohilas, who is representing the plaintiffs in the case against the council members, said on Friday. “It’s ridiculous they get to make decisions on spending millions of dollars when they are not even subject to their own decisions.
Camilla’s ordinances require that a candidate must live in the city and in the district, for at least one year prior to running for office.
“The court finds that the respondents (Pollard and Morgan engaged in) a course of action designed to refuse to provide discovery and/or meaningful discovery testimony, and further that the respondents knowingly spoliated evidence contrary to the instructed litigation,” the judge wrote in his finding. “The court finds the respondents’ refusal to attend originally scheduled depositions was both knowing and intentional” and in violation of Georgia law.”
Bulloch County Republican Party Chair Lawton Sack is running for Statesboro City Council District 2, currently held by Paulette Chavers, according to the Statesboro Herald.
Sack, chairman of the Bulloch County Republican Party, has in effect given up his seat on the county Board of Elections to run for a seat on the officially nonpartisan Statesboro City Council.
Now 46, he has lived in Bulloch County all his life and in Statesboro for the most recent three years and is a resident of the district.
“A lot of citizens encouraged me to put my name on the ballot,” Sack said Friday evening. “They felt like that with these tax increases in the county and the city and with the Board of Education especially that they needed a voice for both Republican and Democratic voters in the city of Statesboro and the county. I’ve preached for years about people getting involved in local politics and it was time to put that in action.”
He previously ran for a county commission seat about 20 years ago but was not elected.
“Now a resident of the city, I thought it was time to get involved locally here and make a change for all of the voters of District 2,” he said.
Georgia Republican Party rules indicate that Sack would have to give up his county party leadership role only if he wins the election, he said.
But under Georgia law, when he qualified to run for public office he automatically vacated the Elections Board seat, he said, adding that he intends to deliver a letter to several county officials. The county commissioners appointed him to the board earlier this year.
Nine members of Georgia’s Congressional Delegation signed a letter to the FDA about shortage of cancer treatment drugs, according to the AJC.
Nine members of the Georgia congressional delegation sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration Thursday seeking answers to questions on cancer drugs that have been in shortage for months.
The shortage, brought to a head by the shutdown of a large manufacturing plant in India, could harm patients because doctors have been forced to change treatment plans. “Providers at cancer centers have started to alter treatment programs and delay preferred therapies due to limited drug availability,” the letter states.
As doctors turned to other drugs, that in turn has caused a shortage of those other drugs in a domino effect, the lawmakers wrote.
Georgia’s elected officials are asking the FDA how it’s working to reopen the production plant in India and how the agency is ensuring drugs imported from other countries meet U.S. standards. They also asked how Congress could address the root causes of drug shortages, “particularly those affecting chemotherapy drugs, so that in the future, the closure of one manufacturing plant will not affect half of the U.S. supply of a critical drug?”
“The FDA must work quickly to assist in resolving shortages of chemotherapy drugs and ensure that the United States is better equipped to address drug shortages in the future,” the senator and Congress members wrote.
“Cancer hospitals in Georgia are currently tracking several drugs other than cisplatin as limited in supply, including carboplatin, fludarabine, fluorouracil, methotrexate, dacarbazine, idarubicin and Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG),” the letter states. “Georgia cancer patients and their doctors deserve to choose treatment based on best evidence and what works for the patient without the additional burden of worrying about the availability and safety of drugs.”
The letter was signed by U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, U.S. Reps. Rick Allen, R-Evans, Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, Buddy Carter, R-Pooler, Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, Rich McCormick, R-Suwanee, and Austin Scott, R-Tifton, according to a copy provided by Warnock’s office.
The Georgia Senate Truck Driver Shortages Study Committee will consider how to bolster Georgia’s workforce, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.
“It’s been an issue for awhile,” said Seth Millican, executive director of the Georgia Transportation Alliance, an affiliate of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. “The pandemic and supply chain crunch we saw directed a lot of attention to it.”
The shortage is being felt particularly in long-haul trucking. Millican said many drivers have been lured away from the long-haul segment of the industry by the growth in e-commerce that accompanied the pandemic and has continued as Georgians become accustomed to the convenience.
“A lot of drivers are working for Amazon,” added state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, who will chair the study committee. “They still drive a truck, but they can go home at night.”
Like many other industries, commercial trucking is suffering from an aging workforce.
Millican said the General Assembly could help address the shortage of truckers through tort reform, a cause the Georgia Chamber has embraced for years.
“In Georgia, it’s often exorbitantly expensive or impossible to insure a driver with less than two years of experience,” he said.
Anavitarte said the committee likely will hold two or three meetings around the state before a final meeting in Atlanta in November to finalize recommendations for the full Senate to consider during the 2024 legislative session.
The City of Edison‘s financial problems may be even deeper, according to WALB.
Edison Resident Tia Ingram says she wants answers about federal money Edison may have received after concerned citizen Shirley Worthy looked over bank records and noticed a mistake allegedly made by former city clerk, Tami Fincher.
“We did receive two payments of Covid money,” Ingram said. “And at a previous city council meeting, Tammy, she actually stated we only got one set of money. That we didn’t get the second set of money. But the bank statements prove otherwise.”
Now, city officials are proposing two courses of action to address the city’s growing debt.
“One of them was to invite the state department of audits to come in and help them do their past audits and perhaps a current one so that they’ll have some better explanation of what their finances are, perhaps how the money was spent,” Edison City Attorney Tommy Coleman said. “Then the other thing was a settlement of a debt.”
Some of the most crucial debts the city owes include its solid waste bill. Coleman is leading the negotiations with the creditors.
“They had not paid them as promptly as they should,” Coleman said. “They actually owe about $75,000. And so we made an arrangement and agreement in an effort not to have their solid waste collections interrupted.”
“They said that the end result of that was going to be maybe raising our garbage bill about maybe $1.95 rough estimate,” Ingram said. “And I mean that’s not bad, I don’t have anything negative to say about the raise for the $1.95 simply because we’re in so much debt, we need to pay people off. And it’s sad that we have to be the ones to pay more.”
“They gotta set their mileage rate, that’s the next thing,” Coleman said. “A gentleman has volunteered. He used to be a- he was a retired tax assessor for the county, has volunteered to help the city calculate what the mileage rate outta be. So we’ll have to have some public hearings on that.”
Savannah closed municipal qualifying, according to the Savannah Morning News.
The qualifying period for all nine seats on Savannah City Council ended at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, and there were a few surprises, including late entries and candidates who declared a run but did not submit the required payment of $750 for alderman or $1,710 for mayor to qualify.
The municipal election will be held Nov. 7. The election is nonpartisan, meaning there is no primary.
Another round of anti-semitic flyers has been reported in Bibb County, according to 13WMAZ.
Antisemitic flyers from the Goyim Defense League were found in Central Georgia again on Sunday afternoon. Residents in the Beall’s Hill neighborhood in Macon found flyers near their homes spouting hateful messages.
13WMAZ reached out to the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, they said they were aware the flyers were being distributed and were investigating. They also said no disturbances had been reported at that time.
The Georgia Ports Authority is expanding its throughput, according to WTOC.
12 years, and an estimated $4.5 billion expansion plan. Georgia Ports are determined to keep up with demand.
“Many ports around the U.S. are facing congestion with limited growth and we want to make sure we don’t have that,” said Griff Lynch, the President of the Georgia Ports Authority.
According to the ports president Griff Lynch, they are expecting to add an additional 20,000 containers for Hyundai and the supporting suppliers.
The first phase of this plan has just been completed – the restructuring of container berth 1 at the Garden City terminal. They are just adding the last step, four additional cranes creating room to serve up to seven more vessels.
Up next is the Ocean Terminal that we can see from River Street. This change will be very similar to the expansion done at the Garden City Terminal creating a total of 1.5 million more 20-foot containers bringing a total of 7.5 million 20 foot units known as TEUs for the ports yearly.
“We want to make sure that we don’t grow too much, and we keep pace with the growth that’s coming.”
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