Gold from Dahlonega on its way to Atlanta. Photo by Ed Jackson via http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu
On August 5, 1774, Royal Governor James Wright issued a proclamation banning assemblies to protest British policy.
President Abraham Lincoln imposed the first federal income tax on August 5, 1861 at the rate of 3 percent on all income over $800 per year.
On August 5, 1910, Gov. Joseph Brown signed legislation outlawing betting on election outcomes.
The caravan transporting 43 ounces of gold from Dahlonega to the State Capitol to be used in gilding the dome arrived in Roswell/Sandy Springs area on August 5, 1958. At the current price of $345.70 per ounce, that would be worth $57,865.10.
President Ronald Reagan began the process of firing all striking Air Traffic Controllers on August 5, 1981.
Divers raised the turret of USS Monitor near Cape Hatteras on August 5, 2002.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp launched a new pilot program to help Georgia residents register to vote or check their current registration by texting “GA” or “Georgia” to “2VOTE” (28683) to link to the office’s Online Voter Registration (OLVR) site, check their “My Voter Page”.
“This pilot project brings yet another technological innovation to Georgians’ fingertips so they can easily register to vote and stay informed throughout this important election cycle,” stated Secretary Kemp. “With Online Voter Registration, the ‘My Voter Page’, the ‘GA SOS’ app, and now 2VOTE, Georgia further solidifies its reputation as an early adopter of election technologies for the benefit of current and future voters.”
Lee Durham, the CEO of Georgia-based company Global Mobile, emphasized the company’s enthusiasm to have Georgia as a partner. “Georgia is a clear leader in providing forward-thinking election technology solutions,” stated Durham. “We are excited to partner with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office for this project.”
Since taking office in 2010, Secretary Kemp has implemented several technological platforms that allow voters to stay more informed and engaged in the electoral process.
In March of 2014, the Secretary of State’s office launched OLVR. Now, any eligible Georgia citizen can submit an electronic voter registration application using their Georgia driver’s license number or state-issued identification card number.
Once an application is submitted, an individual can check his or her registration status, voting information, polling location, and view sample ballots on the office’s new “GA SOS” smartphone app, the “My Voter Page”, or 2VOTE.
Eligible Georgia citizens must register to vote or update their voter record by October 11, 2016 to participate in the General Election on November 8, 2016. Georgians can reference other important dates for the 2016 election cycle on the office’s website.
Kemp also spoke to Georgia Health News to defend his department’s record of overseeing nursing licenses.
“I made this decision to move our agency forward,’’ Kemp said. Though he recently postponed the change, it is still on, and he says it will bring good results.
Kemp noted that he has switched other executive directors among the 39 licensing boards he oversees. He said those changes were for cross-training purposes, and so is the one that will move Cleghorn.
“No other boards have complained at this level,” he said. “People [criticizing the decision] haven’t talked about how hard we’ve worked for nurses.’’
Defending his record on supporting nurses, he cited appointing Cleghorn in 2010; creating a more efficient operation, including hiring employees for a nursing-specific call center; and hiring investigators to pursue complaints against nurses.
Nursing organizations told GHN they still want to move their licensing out of the SOS office.
Leaders in the nursing industry, meanwhile, are discussing a way for their board to move out of Kemp’s office, as the pharmacy and dental boards did in 2013.
“We have gone down a path with the secretary of state, who really has limited communication with us, and makes decisions without communicating with us,’’ said Brenda Rowe, immediate past president of the Board of Nursing.
Making the nursing board independent would require action by the General Assembly, and Rowe conceded that persuading legislators to take such a step “is not easy.’’
Nevertheless, she told GHN, some legislators have expressed support for the nurses.
State Rep. Rusty Kidd (I-Milledgeville) announced he will abandon his reelection campaign, meaning the General Assembly will lose its only elected Independent legislator.
Instead of campaigning over the next few months, the sole independent in the state Legislature said he is going to take care of health problems from a 1999 motorcycle accident that left him with paralysis below the chest.
“If I can’t do it at the 100 percent level I demand of myself, then I need to get well so I can do it at 100 percent,” said Kidd, who was first elected in 2009.
Kidd didn’t rule out running for office again one day or returning to his old job — lobbying at the state Legislature, which he did starting in 1972. He had a wide range of clients over the years, from medical associations to tobacco company R.J. Reynolds, among others.
His departure leaves two candidates in the November election for House District 145. There’s Democrat Floyd Griffin Jr., a former state senator and former Milledgeville mayor. The other is Republican Rick Williams, a former Baldwin County commissioner. Both men are funeral home directors.
Emails between Appalachian Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Brenda Weaver and local District Attorney Alison Sosebee suggest the judge had an active role in shaping an indictment against the publisher of Fannin Focus.
Weaver sent Sosebee a state code section that could be used against the publisher, Mark Thomason, and his attorney, Russell Stookey. Weaver also told Sosebee how to cross examine some potential witnesses in the case.
The advice came after Thomason tried to see the cash flow for Weaver’s publicly funded bank account. Sosebee presented a case to a grand jury, which on June 24 indicted Thomason and Stookey on charges of identity fraud and attempt to commit identity fraud for their efforts to access documents pretaining to Weaver’s operating account. The grand jury also indicted Thomason on a count of making false statements, in reference to a records request he filed.
The emails obtained this week provide a behind-the-scenes account of how the judge and prosecutor worked together in the case against Thomason and Stookey. They also reveal the nature of the relationship between Weaver and Sosebee, who once worked for the judge and her husband.
“For the DA to take this without much of an investigation and turn it into a criminal indictment is really disturbing,” said Bob Rubin, president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “It certainly gives the appearance that the DA was doing the judge’s bidding.”
Georgia DOT broke ground for the expansion of tolled express lanes in Gwinnett County.
Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson says he’s delusional optimistic that Hillary Clinton could carry Georgia in November.
“I was heartened to see reports that Georgia is now a battle ground state,” Johnson. “With the recent polling coming out showing everything is neck-and-neck in Georgia, which is a red state, coming out of the convention is exciting.”
The congressman had endorsed Clinton’s presidential bid long before the convention, and he gave her high marks for her acceptance speech. He feels she showed that she will be able to unify people as president.
FiveThirtyEight still says that Donald Trump has a nearly 60% chance of carrying Georgia in November. [Since I wrote that sentence an hour ago, 538 has updated its prediction to Trump having a 54.4% chance of winning the Peach State in November.]
Democratic Senator Harry Reid told The Hill that Hillary Clinton will carry Georgia in November.
“The last [re-election] for President Obama, he never stepped foot in Georgia, but yet he lost by about 3 percent. Georgia is Hillary Clinton’s and I’m glad she’s going to be campaigning there.” Reid told reporters in Nevada on Thursday. – See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/harry-reid-says-hillary-clinton-will-win-georgia-arizona#sthash.b0HSq0QZ.dpuf
The AJC Political Insider reports that former Democratic Governor Roy Barnes and former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn have both donated to Johnny Isakson’s reelection campaign, while WXIA brought news that Democratic Congressman David Scott said he’ll vote for Isakson.
A man from Houston County has the distinction of being the first confirmed case of the Zika virus in Middle Georgia.
Meanwhile, the Emory Vaccine Center will be working on trials of a Zika virus vaccine.
The Hope Clinic of the Emory Vaccine Center is one of three U.S. sites conducting a clinical trial for a new Zika vaccine.
“It’s a DNA vaccine that encodes two proteins of the Zika virus, and it’ll be tested in four different groups of human volunteers,” says Dr. Sri Edupuganti, an infectious disease physician and medical director of the Hope Clinic.
The trial is in its first phase, which will focus on the vaccine’s safety and see whether humans develop an immune response to the virus.
A meeting to air concerns over coal ash brought out more than a hundred people in Brunswick.
[Dink] NeSmith was the first of about two dozen people who told state regulators at a packed meeting Thursday in Brunswick that they’re worried about the coal ash already buried nearby and they don’t want any more in coastal Georgia. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division held the public meeting to receive comment on regulations it’s developing for the disposal of coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal at power plants.
More than 150 attended Thursday’s meeting.
“We don’t want a rule that says how you do it,” said Linda Muir, an attorney who lives on St. Simons. “We want a rule that says you don’t do it.”
Coal ash contains radioactive materials as well as carcinogenic heavy metals. The second largest industrial waste stream generated in the U.S., coal ash has been stored in unlined holding ponds at power plants nationwide. Enormous spills from coal ash ponds in Tennessee in 2008 and North Carolina in 2014 spurred new regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about its disposal at power plants.
But the EPA didn’t define coal ash as hazardous, so it can be treated similarly to household waste and buried in municipal solid waste landfills.
Georgia is writing its own regulations to deal with coal ash. While the proposed rules plug some holes, activists and coastal residents want even stricter controls. That’s especially true of residents near Wayne County’s Broadhurst landfill where nearly a million tons of coal ash have already been stored. Plans for a new rail spur at the landfill mean even more could be shipped in economically from even farther away.
[State Rep. Jeff] Jones urged EPD to slow down and make strong rules and not worry about its current end of the year deadline.
Tim Downing announced he will not run for reelection as Mayor of Holly Springs in November.
When asked if he planned to endorse any candidates to replace him in the race, Downing said he will remain neutral.
“Whoever is elected as mayor needs to evaluate everything I have done over my tenure with the city to validate those decisions or change course,” he said. “If I endorse someone I compromise any objectivity the candidate may have.”
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