General George Washington created the Purple Heart on August 7, 1782. Click here for an interesting history of the award.
On August 7, 1790, a delegation of Creeks met with the United States Secretary of War and signed the Treaty of New York, ceding all land between the Ogeechee and Oconee Rivers to Georgia.
On August 8, 1863, General Robert E. Lee offered his resignation in a letter to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, following the Battle of Gettysburg.
Theodore Roosevelt, who served as President from 1901 to 1909, was nominated for President by the Progressive Party, also called the Bull Moose Party, on August 7, 1912.
On August 8, 1925, Georgia Governor Clifford Walker signed legislation outlawing the brazen act of dancing publicly on Sunday.
On August 8, 1929, Georgia Governor Lamartine Hardman signed legislation placing on the ballot for Fulton and Campbell County voters a merger of the two.
The old Campbell County Courthouse still stands in Fairburn, Georgia.
On August 7, 1942, Marine forces landed at Guadalcanal.
Voters ratified a new version of the State Constitution on August 7, 1945. Among the new features was the establishment of the State Board of Corrections to ensure humane conditions.
The board was directed to be more humane in its treatment of prisoners and abolished whippings, leg irons, and chains. Until 1945, prisoners in Georgia could expect to have heavy steel shackles put on by a blacksmith upon arrival. They were then taken out to work under severe conditions.
The caravan bearing 43 ounces of Dahlonega gold to be used in covering the Georgia State Capitol dome reached the Capitol and delivered it to Governor Marvin Griffin on August 7, 1958.
On August 7, 1964, Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which would be used as the legal basis for U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew were nominated for President and Vice President by the Republican National Convention on August 8, 1968.
On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned, effective at noon the next day.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Forbes has obviously never been in a car in Metro Atlanta. Forbes ranked Georgia drivers as the fourth-most polite in the nation, according to the Augusta Chronicle via the Savannah Morning News.
The popular business and finance magazine analyzed the 50 states to determine which has the most confrontational drivers. After evaluating them based on nine key metrics, the study determined Georgia is the fourth most polite in the U.S.
This was calculated through a third-party research company that surveyed 10,000 licensed drivers to determine how often people have been forced off the road, been yelled at by another driver, tailgating, and other road rage related incidents. Each state was then given an overall score out of 100 with the higher scores meaning more confrontational drivers.
Georgia ranked No. 47, a major improvement from last year when the study ranked it No. 31. This year only 2.5% of Georgia drivers experiencing road rage very frequently from other drivers in their home state. Only about 6.5% of drivers said another driver has exited their vehicle to yell at or fight with them.
Former Georgia State Senator Sheila McNeill (R-Kings Bay) died, according to The Brunswick News.
Gov. Brian Kemp said he and his family were “saddened by the loss.”
“A lifelong Georgian and true public servant, Sen. McNeill dedicated her career to supporting the men and women of our armed forces and the important Naval history our state is so proud of,” he said. “As a legislator, Sen. McNeill worked to protect Georgia’s natural resources, better the lives of our veterans and their families, and promote the economic importance of Coastal Georgia.”
[State Sen. Mike Hodges (R-St. Simons Island)] said McNeill found her niche as an advocate for the Navy and sea services.
He was elected to the state senate after McNeill decided not to seek another term to take care of her husband Arlie, who died last year after a long illness.
“She helped me from day one,” Hodges said. “She showed me the ropes.”
Hodges said his fellow state senators told stories about McNeill when he took office. They said the first time McNeill met them, they thought they were going to help educate a rookie state senator on how things worked in Atlanta.
Retired three-star Vice Adm. Al Konetzni said his friendship with McNeill began in 1987 when he was stationed at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay.
“She was a wonderful lady,” he said. “I feel fortunate to have known her for decades.”
He said she helped foster the strong relationship Kings Bay has with Camden County.
“Sheila kept the community spirit down here,” he said. “She supported us with every breath of her life. There will never be another Navy base like Kings Bay, Ga.”
Meanwhile, McNeill’s advocacy of the Navy and Kings Bay led to her rising in the ranks of the Navy League, becoming its first female national president, She served as its head from 2003 to 2005.
McNeill played important roles in convincing Homeland Security officials to keep the Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team in St. Marys when cutbacks threatened to close the command.
Her strong advocacy also helped convince the Navy to convert four Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines that were planned to be removed from service. The four boats now carry an arsenal of non-nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles and conduct clandestine missions along coastal areas throughout the world.
Two of those boats, USS Georgia and USS Florida, are home ported at Kings Bay.
Retired Senior Chief Keith Post was a friend for more than two decades, starting when she was national Navy League president. He learned how persuasive McNeill could be once they got to know each other.
Post uses the term “voluntold” to describe how she would volunteer him for different tasks such as when he served as interim manager of the St. Marys Submarine Museum, which she founded in 1995. Post was filling in as interim manager after the unexpected death of John Crouse, who managed the museum from the time it opened.
“She didn’t ask me. She voluntold me for the museum job,” he said.
Former Columbus City Councilor and State Representative Milton Hirsch died, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.
Hirsch was a Columbus Councilor from 1973-78 and a Georgia House member from 1983-84.
Hirsch’s willingness to go against the majority most likely contributed to his short political career, Jay said, such as a controversial state bill regarding bankruptcy and his advocacy for banning Saturday Night Special handguns in the city.
“He had pressure on him to vote one way, but he refused because he didn’t think it would be fair and it would hurt people,” Jay said. “He paid the price for it. … His focus was just absolutely on what would be fair, not for the rich or the poor but for everybody.”
Rabbi Larry Schlesinger of Temple Israel, who served on the Bibb County Commission and ran for mayor in Macon, called Hirsch’s death “a huge loss” for Columbus.
“Milton put service above self, and that was expressed in so many different aspects of his life and his career,” Schlesinger told the L-E. “The people he served benefited from what he had to offer.”
While on the city council, Hirsch was a member of the committee that spearheaded the development of Uptown Columbus, the nonprofit organization that revitalized and promotes the city’s downtown.
In 1976, Hirsch was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention that nominated fellow Georgian Jimmy Carter for president.
In Cobb County, “lawyers be lawyering.” From the AJC:
Cobb County attorneys are trying to intervene in the lawsuit over an electoral map that a Superior Court judge has ruled unconstitutional — an apparent last-ditch effort to preserve a map the county drew itself and that keeps Democratic Commissioner Jerica Richardson in her seat.
This week, the county’s attorneys filed legal briefs asking Cobb Superior Court Judge Kellie Hill to allow them to enter the case between Alicia Adams and the Cobb County Board of Elections — and to reconsider her judgments that the map is unconstitutional, and that the May primary elections for Districts 2 and 4 commission seats need to be redone.
Last month, the judge ruled that the county map is unconstitutional because it was passed by the county commission, not by the state Legislature, which conducts nearly all of the redistricting in Georgia. County officials argue they are allowed to draw their own districts by the home rule provision in the state constitution — a novel legal claim that many consider dubious, and that Judge Hill found unconvincing.
But the lawsuit was filed against the county’s Board of Elections, which has decided to not appeal the Hill’s ruling. That has led the county commission to request intervention.
In the filings, county attorneys admit that the state-passed map, which drew Richardson out of her district mid-term, should be the legal map of the county — a reversal from the position the county has argued all along. County attorneys have argued that Richardson’s seat would be vacated immediately when the state-passed map goes into effect because she does not live in the district.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr discussed the fentanyl overdose crisis, according to the Rome News Tribune.
The number of opioid related overdose deaths increased by more than 308% in Georgia from 2019 to 2022, according to Department of Public Health records.
When he took office in 2016, Carr said, there was a need for communication between different groups that deal with addiction each day. For that reason they formed the statewide Opioid Task Force.
“What we decided to do is create an infrastructure and communications through our own statewide task force that brings all disciplines together: public, private, nonprofit, law enforcement, recovery, academia, you name it,” Carr said. “We need to be able to talk about what we’re doing; each of us is different. How do we leverage those assets to address the crisis?”
Carr spoke at a task force meeting at Georgia Northwestern Technical College on Monday. Local agencies like the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia Department of Public Health, Rome Police Department and Floyd County Prison attended as well as several local and area nonprofits that help provide addiction recovery services.
Attorney General Carr opined that the AP African-American Studies course does not violate the “divisive concepts” legislation passed by the General Assembly, according to the AJC.
Georgia’s top attorney said the state’s divisive concepts law does not apply to Advanced Placement and other college-level courses, according to a letter to the 2022 measure’s author that was obtained Tuesday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The letter from Republican Attorney General Chris Carr to state Rep. Will Wade, R-Dawsonville, said it was “clear” the measure was designed not to “prohibit the implementation of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or dual enrollment courses.”
It was sent Friday — two days after state Republican School Superintendent Richard Woods said he declined to recommend AP African American Studies for statewide approval because some topics “did violate the law.”
Woods could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But Woods said in a statement last week that he consulted the attorney general about the law and acknowledged there may be an exemption: “Should (Carr’s) ruling reverse my decision, then I will follow the law.”
Carr’s office said Tuesday it provided legal advice in response to a request from the state education department, but couldn’t elaborate, citing attorney-client privilege.
Though the letter to Wade was not an official opinion, Carr’s dispatch is part of growing pushback from prominent Georgia Republicans over Woods’ position.
Black Church PAC discussed turning out voters for November’s elections, according to the AJC.
On Monday night, [Otis] Moss III, a professor at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology and senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and his father joined more than 16,000 others virtually — including pastors, gospel artists and nonprofit leaders — to plan strategies to educate and encourage people to vote in the upcoming presidential election. A special topic of the virtual meeting, led by the Black Church PAC, was the millions of unregistered, but eligible, voters.
The three-plus-hour “Win With the Black Church” call raised $550,000, said the Rev. Jamal H. Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest and a Black Church PAC board member.
Coincidently, the video call came nearly 59 years to the day President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 that removed voting barriers, such as literacy tests, which kept millions of Black men and women from registering to vote.
“So if we mobilize our community, whichever way they decide to vote, it’s going to be an impact,” Bryant said in an earlier interview.
After Monday night’s call, Bryant added, “The primary goal focused on mobilization with a secondary call to action around generating campaign donations. This demonstrated the capacity and commitment of the faith community to electing Kamala Harris.”
The Georgia State Election Board voted to adopt new rules on county certification of election results, according to the Associated Press via WRDW.
Georgia’s State Election Board voted Tuesday to require county election officials to make a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results to the state, signaling that fights about approving election results could intensify this November in the South’s premier battleground state.
Supporters say the measure is needed because members of county election boards must swear statements that results are accurate and need to be able to adequately assure themselves that the totals are correct before doing so.
“Why one would not want to assume there is some oversight?” asked State Election Board member Janice Johnston, who was appointed the panel by the state Republican Party. “It’s the duty of the board to provide some oversight, in a fair way, in a reasonable way.”
But opponents of the rule say it’s an invitation to create post-election chaos and that the board is defying state law that says that county officials “shall certify” results, as well as more than a century of court precedent finding county officials have little wiggle room on the issue.
“The proposed rule changes will give authority to local election officials to halt the counting of votes and slow down, or even outright refuse certification if they contend there are any irregularities, essentially making the certification of election results discretionary,” said House Minority Whip Sam Park, a Democrat from Lawrenceville. “The key word there is discretionary. This would essentially give partisan county board of elections personal control over Georgia’s election results, allowing them to uphold certifying the election if they disagree with the results.”
The rule will take effect after 20 days, although it could be challenged in court.
From the Capitol Beat News Service:
The change, which passed 3-2, essentially does away with a provision in current state election law that says county elections superintendents “shall” certify election results by the Monday following an election, making certification a non-discretionary function.
“It’s guardrails to make the point that what we are doing is very important and not to be taken lightly,” said Michael Heekin, a Republican member of the Fulton County Board of Elections, who proposed the rules change.
The State Election Board’s Republican members argued that it’s common sense to expect local elections officials to want to make sure votes have been counted accurately before they sign legal affidavits certifying the results.
Board member Dr. Janice Johnston dismissed arguments that the 142 hours after an election local officials are given to certify results is not enough time to do anything but rubber stamp them.
“An election like that is no better than an election in Venezuela or Russia,” she said. “We’re not asking a board to do a full audit, just a reasonable inquiry.”
But Democrats accused Republicans of rushing the rules change through just 90 days before the November elections to give local elections officials leeway to potentially delay certification and throw results into question, a tactic former President Donald Trump used four years ago with a flurry of lawsuits after Democrat Joe Biden carried Georgia’s 16 electoral votes.
Board member Sara Tindall Ghazal, a Democrat, said the term “reasonable inquiry” is too vague,
“The definition, the way it’s stated, allows exploitation,” she said.
Board Chairman John Fervier, who joined Ghazal in opposing the change, said he received a series of emails from Democratic state lawmakers urging the board not to approve it. One suggested setting a time frame for how long a “reasonable inquiry” could last, while another argued giving local election officials such discretion over certification decisions could overwhelm them.
Addy’s Law, HB 409, passed by the General Assembly this year and signed by Governor Kemp, is affecting bus routes in Lee County, Georgia, according to WALB.
17 of the 64 routes in the district have been changed since House Bill 409 was signed into law, also known as Addy’s Law.
8-year-old Adalynn Price was killed while crossing the road to board her school bus. The law now requires public school systems to prioritize bus routes to avoid having students cross roads that have a speed limit of more than 40 miles per hour.
This is something the school district says they’ve already been working towards.
“We were already looking at what’s the best way we can make sure that our students are safe. We have a lot of rural highways and so what that means is those are higher speeds.”, said Dr. Kathleen Truitt, Lee County Schools Superintendent.
“And with this new law, it’s just emphasizing that more to not allow the child to cross the road on roads that are 40 miles per hour or higher and that’s what we’ve been working on all summer to try to get this done for the safety of the students.”, said Latesha Wilson, Transportation Director for Lee County School System.
The district says the very first stop will be at 5:55 a.m. and the latest drop-off will be at 4:48 p.m.
But the early pickup and late drop-off times aren’t because of Addy’s law but rather how rural Lee County is.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is short on game wardens, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Gwinnett Daily Post.
With the traditional summer vacation season getting underway, Georgia continues to suffer from a chronic shortage of game wardens to serve its 2 million hunters and 600,000 to 700,000 anglers.
The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) boasted 250 game wardens back in 2000. But a series of budget cuts had dropped that workforce as low as 181 in fiscal 2017 before it rebounded to 234 in the fiscal 2025 budget that takes effect July 1.
“We’re still not up to where we were 24 years ago,” said Col. Mike England, director of the DNR’s Law Enforcement Division. “How many people are in Georgia in 2000, and how many do we have now?”
The DNR isn’t alone when it comes to workforce shortages. The $36.1 billion state budget the General Assembly adopted in March includes $3,000 pay raises for workers in state agencies suffering high turnover rates on top of the 4% cost-of-living increases most state and university system employees are getting.
But England said game wardens face more difficult work schedules than their colleagues, which contributes to high turnover rates.
“We don’t work shifts,” he said. “Game wardens are on call 24 hours a day.”
Because hunters and anglers tend to pursue their hobbies on weekends, game wardens are only off duty one weekend per month, England said.
“Our officers can’t go home and drink a beer because they may be on call,” he said. “They get tired of the schedule.”
Mike Worley, president and CEO of the Georgia Wildlife Federation, said the shortage of game wardens has not affected the agency’s ability to process applications for hunting and fishing licenses in a timely manner.
“Our technology has helped us a lot,” he said. “There is really not a backlog for hunting and fishing licenses. It’s really about the enforcement.”
Tim who? Georgia delegates to the Democratic National Convention reacted to Vice President Kamala Harris’s choice of a running mate, according to Atlanta News First via WRDW.
“I thought it was going to be Shapiro. My personal preference was for Josh Shapiro, but Tim Walz is a pretty solid pick,” Seth Taylor, a Georgia delegate, said. “He is a down-to-earth, plain-spoken, Midwesterner who reminds you of your dad in a way.”
Taylor said many of his fellow delegates, though surprised by Walz, are pleased with the pick.
Walz, a former high school teacher and Army National Guard veteran, has been one of the most staunch supporters of Harris’ run for the White House. In countless media appearances, he helped popularize the “weird” moniker Democrats have bestowed upon the Trump-Vance campaign.
But name recognition may be a weak point for the ticket. A new poll conducted by NPR, PBS and Marist shows 71% of Americans say they’ve never heard of Walz and don’t have an opinion of him. But in politics, that can be a blessing.
“He just needs to keep going on the campaign trail and introducing himself,” said Taylor. “Tim Walz started the trend of calling Trump and Vance ‘weird.’ I mean, that’s enough name recognition in itself.”
Former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, the most prominent Democrat in Georgia to publicly call for President Joe Biden to step aside, said picking Walz could alienate middle-of-the-road voters.
In a column in the AJC, Bordeaux wrote Harris wasted a chance to “show independence and to help establish her more moderate credentials” when she picked Walz, a favorite of the Democrat’s liberal base, over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Bourdeaux wrote:
“OK then, Walz does no harm perhaps, but Harris now has made the challenge to break out harder. Can she define herself in a way that will win Georgia? With every ad labeling her as a San Francisco liberal, Republicans are scrambling to define her. The door to show she is her own person is closing fast.”
A panel of UGA students handed down sanctions against six students who protested on campus, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
The sanctions imposed by the University of Georgia administration on six students arrested during an April 29 protest on campus will remain in place, according to a ruling released Tuesday by a panel of UGA students who heard the appeals.
The six students appealed the sanctions before a panel of three students from the University Judiciary during a hearing held July 30 at Memorial Hall. The students can still appeal this decision to UGA’s vice president for Student Affairs.
The sanctions include suspensions from the fall semester, which begins Aug. 14, and an order they remain on probation through the remainder of their scholastic careers at UGA.
In addition, all six are barred from being on campus through Jan. 1, 2025.
Wilkes County Sheriff candidate Detric Jones drew a complaint that is being investigated, according to WRDW.
The District Attorney’s Office says they have received an investigative file regarding candidate, Detric Jones. They are reviewing the file and cannot comment any further at this time.
Back in 2015, Jones was suspended and assigned to a different school for making inappropriate comments to students after upset parents contacted the school board.
Jones just defeated incumbent Mark Moore in the primaries a few months ago.
Jones is not currently a school resource officer at the McDuffie Achievement Center.
Dalton City Council will host a Town Hall to discuss proposed changes to the alcohol laws, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.
“One of the things we are focusing on is safety,” said Mayor Annalee Harlan Sams. “But we also have to make changes to our ordinance to comply with state law. and I think it’s helpful if the community understands that some of these (changes) are not up for debate.”
Among the changes:
— Adding a requirement for cameras to be placed at the entrances of bars and stores that sell alcoholic beverages by the package with a phase-in period.
— Requiring establishments other than restaurants that sell alcoholic beverages to use ID scanners.
— Requiring owners and anyone who handles alcoholic beverages at places that sell it for consumption on the premises to undergo training.
The City of Brunswick will hold required public meetings to discuss a property tax millage rate proposal, according to The Brunswick News.
Brunswick’s property tax rate is not increasing, but due to higher land values, the city expects collections to rise by 7.63%.
The millage rate is currently 13.219 mills.
Commissioners do not plan to increase the tax rate, but when land values rise, state law requires local governments to advertise a tax increase if they do not lower the rate to keep total collections the same as the year prior.
In this case, the city would have to lower its millage rate to 12.282 to collect the same amount in tax revenue as it did in 2023.
The proposed tax increase for a home with a fair market value of $100,000 is approximately $37.48 and the proposed tax increase for non-homestead property with a fair market value of $300,000 is approximately $112.44, according to a notice published by City Hall.
At $22.7 million, this year’s budget is $2.7 million higher than fiscal year 2024’s, although most of the increase did not come from property taxes, according to city officials.
Most of the rise in tax income could be attributed to the franchise and insurance premium taxes, City Manager Regina McDuffie told commissioners in June.
This year’s property taxes are expected to raise around $5.8 million.
Monroe County Commissioners voted to reduce the property tax millage rate, according to 13WMAZ.
Monroe County Commissioners voted Monday to decrease the millage rate by 1.5 mills, also cutting the county property tax for 2024.
Monroe County Commissioners say the tax cut will result in $10 million in SPLOST funds surplus. They say $8 million will pay off fire truck and police car loans while $2 million will go toward reducing property taxes. Commissioner Eddie Rowland says for the past six years they’ve just tried to be smart with money.
“We have reduced the millage rate every year since 2018,” Rowland said. “It just shows that we are using money wisely.”
He says the 10.803 figure is the lowest he’s seen in decades, but he’s mostly excited about paying down some of the debt they owe.
“We’re just pleased to do it and it’s equally important to pay down debt,” Rowland said.
For homeowners like Daniel, he believes this will be beneficial to the community.
“It’s about money, it’s about paying less money,” Daniel said. “We all think we’re overtaxed – I mean, everywhere.”
Under the proposed millage rate, a Monroe County homeowner with a home valued at $300,000 would have their property tax bill reduced by $130.
The Georgia Ports Authority and the Hall County Chamber of Commerce updated residents on progress on the Blue Ridge Connector, according to AccessWDUN.
The inland port, which is slated to open in early 2026, will connect the Northeast Georgia region with the port of Savannah’s 36 global container ship services. Freight is to be transported to the site via the Norfolk Southern rail line, where it will be picked up by trucks and brought to Atlanta.
“(We’ve) probably got about another six to eight weeks to be able to start working on the rail yard,” [GPA General Manager for inland operations Wesley] Barrell said. “And then, in turn, we’re going to be able to move further with some additional engineering at that point.”
The connector will feature 104 acres of terminal area, 18,000 feet of tracks, and 14 gantry cranes to increase the site’s productivity. The facility will have the capacity to ship 200,000 containers each year.
“Norfolk Southern movement, from our freight, coming all the way from Hall County back down to Savannah, is obviously going to give that reduction in emissions, moving more with less,” he explained. “That’s really part of that strategy which we have been able to cut that rail cost, cut that transportation cost, and then really the congestion which that gives throughout the state, then also that state improvement funding, which is also going to be reduced as well.”
GPA estimates that by 2054, the port will have saved roughly a billion miles that would have been driven by trucks, reduced truck use from 7 hours to less than 30 minutes, and avoided 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
The connector is also projected to create nearly 63,000 jobs within the Northeast Georgia region, with 9,682 jobs expected to directly impact Hall County.
As Hall County prepares to improve road infrastructure near the inland port, county Administrator Zach Propes also shared information regarding the TSPLOST set for the November ballot, which would aim to fund those projects should it be passed.
“Hall County is leading in investing in some of the road infrastructure in that area to realign White Sulfur [Road], improve Cagle [Road], improve intersections,” Propes told AccessWDUN. “All that’s designed to help with traffic flow, to help with congestion, to help with traffic safety, and make sure that not just the Blue Ridge connector…but also the residents that live in that area, to make sure that they’ve got the safest possible access to and from their homes.”
The TSPLOST would be a 1% sales tax on goods and services in Hall County for up to six years. The tax would fund road improvement projects within the county. If passed in November, it would generate roughly $390 million.
The Screven County Emergency Management Agency warned local residents about road usage amid flooding from Hurricane Debby, according to WJBF.
The shared the following on their Facebook Page:
*****PLEASE USE EXTREME CAUTION ON ALL ROADS!! THERE IS EXTENSIVE DAMAGE THROUGHOUT OUR COUNTY AND MANY ISSUES THAT HAVE NOT BEEN IDENTIFIED YET!!! *****
PLEASE DO NOT TRAVEL ON THE ROADS IF UNNECESSARY!!!!
Please do not take for granted the fact that the rain has stopped and the road looks fine does not mean that they are!
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