James Edward Oglethorpe was born in London, England, on December 22, 1696. He was elected to Parliament, where he worked on prison reform and had the idea of a new colony where “worthy poor” Brits could be sent. In 1732, Oglethorpe was granted a charter to create a colony of Georgia in the new world.
On December 22, 1775, the Continental Congress created the Continental Navy.
On December 25, 1776, Continental forces under General George Washington began crossing the Delaware River and the next day launched a surprise attack on Hessian soldiers at Trenton, New Jersey.
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony premiered on December 22, 1808 in Vienna, Austria.
The War of 1812 ended on December 24, 1814 with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, Belgium by British and American representatives.
Happy Birthday to Columbus, Georgia, founded on December 24, 1827 when Gov. John Forsyth signed legislation incorporating the new town.
Governor George Gilmer signed legislation that prohibited teaching slaves or free African-Americans to read or write on December 22, 1829. One year later to the day, he signed legislation claiming for the state all territory occupied by the Cherokee tribe.
On December 21, 1835, Oglethorpe University was incorporated near Macon, later moving to Atlanta.
Wesleyan College in Macon was chartered on December 23, 1836, becoming the first college chartered specifically to grant degrees to women.
Martha Bulloch and Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. were married at Bulloch Hall in Roswell, Georgia on December 22, 1853. Their son, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. would later be elected President of the United States.
On December 21, 1863, the Confederate government selected a site in Sumter County for construction of Camp Sumter, which would be better known by the name Andersonville Prison.
General William Tecumseh Sherman received the surrender of Savannah, Georgia on December 21, 1864.
On December 22, 1864, General William T. Sherman wired to President Abraham Lincoln from Savannah, Georgia,
His Excellency President LINCOLN:
I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of cotton.
W.T. Sherman,
Major General.
On December 23, 1864, the Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution specifying that the Senate chamber should be lit by electricity for the next Session. That is the last time the legislature sought enlightenment before passing laws.
On December 25, 1868, President Andrew Johnson issued an unconditional pardon of all Confederates.
President Calvin Coolidge lit the first National Christmas Tree on the White House grounds on December 24, 1923.
On December 26, 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt watched a private viewing of Gone With the Wind at the White House.
U.S.S. Atlanta was commissioned on December 24, 1941 at the New York Navy Yard as the lead ship of a new class of Light Cruisers. USS Atlanta (CL-51) was sponsored by Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind.
Eugene Talmadge, who was elected four times as Governor of Georgia, in 1932, 1934, 1940, and 1946, died on December 21, 1946, leading to the Three Governors Controversy.
The Jimmy Carter National Historic Site was created in Plains, Georgia on December 23, 1987.
Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR on December 25, 1991, signalling the end of the Godless Communist regime.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
United States District Court Judge Steve Jones (ND-GA) said his analysis of new redistricting lines will focus on African-American voters, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.
A federal judge appeared to throw cold water Wednesday on efforts to challenge new congressional and legislative maps the General Assembly’s Republican majorities drew during a recent special session.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones declared during a hearing that the case has focused on the rights of Black voters, not either Asian or Hispanic voters, the Associated Press reported.
The new maps created seven new Black majority districts in the General Assembly, two in the state Senate and five in the Georgia House, as well as an additional Black majority district in the state’s congressional map, as Jones ordered in October when he declared the maps lawmakers drew in 2021 in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
But legislative Democrats argued during the special session that Republicans failed to protect so-called “coalition” districts, where Blacks do not make up a majority of voters but together with Hispanic and Asian voters wield enough political clout to elect a minority candidate.
But Jones said Wednesday that no evidence concerning Asian and Hispanic voting behavior was introduced at the earlier trial. He said he was reluctant to rule on what amounts to a new alleged violation during a short time frame.
The judge indicated he would issue a decision soon to meet a mid-January deadline for the 2024 elections.
[Plaintiff’s lawyer Abha Khanna] compared the state’s actions in drawing the maps to a classic arcade game.
“We’re going to make you chase us all over the state from district to district to achieve equal opportunity for Black voters. It’s a constant game of whack-a-mole.”
“The only whack-a-mole from the state’s perspective is the shifting themes of the plaintiffs,” retorted Bryan Tyson, a lawyer representing the state.
Tyson said plaintiffs keep changing their arguments in pursuit of a partisan goal.
“At the end of the day, the only thing that is consistent is the protection of Democratic districts,” he said.
Tyson said the Republican-led Legislature was not shy about the fact that political considerations factored into the maps. Political gerrymandering is legal, but racial gerrymandering is not. But with white Georgians more likely to support Republicans and minority Georgians tending to vote for Democrats, combing out which is which can be difficult.
Near the end of the hearing, which lasted around six hours, Tyson said the maps would need to be in place by Jan. 25 so local elections offices can begin entering information into their systems, and the counties must be finished by Feb. 12.
Candidates hoping to run for the state Legislature must live in their district for a year, so time is running short for these hopefuls for campaign outreach and fundraising.
Jones pledged to continue reviewing the maps.
“I’ll give you all an answer very quickly,” he said.
The Stacey Abrams campaign will turn over requested emails to the Georgia State Ethics Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, according to the AJC.
For four years the emails have been at the center of a court fight between Abrams’ campaign and the state ethics commission, which has been investigating whether her campaign illegally coordinated with outside groups. Abrams’ campaign has called it a partisan “fishing expedition.”
A judge recently ordered the campaign to turn the emails over to the ethics commission. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained the correspondence this week – fewer than two dozen messages in all that her camp says prove they didn’t do anything illegal.
Under Georgia law, groups advocating for candidates must disclose contributions and expenditures regularly and are generally not allowed to directly coordinate their efforts with a candidate’s campaign, such as jointly planning advertising or canvassing efforts.
In one email exchange, the mother of a political canvasser complained to the leader of the New Georgia Project — a voter registration nonprofit that Abrams founded — about late payments to workers in Atlanta, some of whom had banks reject checks for insufficient funds once they received them.
The woman wrote that her daughter was provided with “Abrams for Governor materials to share with residents.” She doesn’t say who gave them to her daughter.
Nse Ufot, then-chief executive officer of the New Georgia Project, responded, “We do not have any relationship, nor have we coordinated with, Ms. Abrams or her campaign.” She apologized for pay arriving late and said banks had extra scrutiny of NGP checks because of “multiple attempts to breach our account with fraudulent checks.” Abrams was CC’d on the response, as was her campaign.
David Emadi, the ethics commission’s executive secretary, said his office had not yet received the emails and he would wait to comment until after he sees them.
Abrams campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo said, “While the politicization of the Ethics Commission continues to deeply concern us, we are following the court’s order and producing the emails Gov. Brian Kemp and his allies have been wastefully spending taxpayer money chasing for years.
The United States Senate did not confirm former Georgia State Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) as Ambassador to the Bahamas, according to the AJC.
Now, the president must decide if he wants to nominate Smyre to the post for a third time. The send-back means that for Smyre to get the post, he would have to start the Senate confirmation process over again since lawmakers didn’t move forward on approving him this calendar year.
Biden originally selected Smyre to serve as ambassador to the Dominican Republic in November 2021 but later switched the nomination to the Bahamas. However, the two-year congressional term ended in January 2023 without Smyre being confirmed by the Senate.
The president reappointed Smyre to the post that same month, but his nomination lingered once again without action. His name was on a list of more than 50 nominations the Senate rejected Wednesday as one of it’s last actions before adjourning for the year.
Roy Minter Jr. was Biden’s nominee to serve as U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Georgia. Minter was serving as chief of Savannah police at the time of his appointment in 2022, but he resigned to focus on the anticipated post.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources announced shrimp season is extended through January 18, according to The Brunswick News.
It was originally scheduled to close at 6:20 p.m. on Dec. 31, the planned annual closing date for shrimp season. If conditions are right, state law allows the season to remain open through February.
“We’re happy to announce this extension for Georgia’s shrimpers,” said Carolyn Belcher, chief of fisheries for DNR’s Coastal Resources Division, which manages state commercial and recreation marine fisheries. “Our recent monitoring surveys revealed shrimp exceeding 20-year average size, indicating a healthy population well-prepared for continued sustainable harvest.”
The decision was made due to the above-average size of Georgia’s shrimp population in December, which exceeded the 20-year average. It prompted DNR Commissioner Walter Rabon to sign the administrative order extending the season.
Sampling by DNR in December showed an average of 2.04 lbs. of shrimp collected per 15-minute trawl, compared to the 20-year average of 1.93 lbs.
It took an average of 20.62 shrimp with heads on to weigh one pound, meaning each individual shrimp is larger on average than the 20-year average, which required 29.45 shrimp to weigh one pound.
“The extended season presents a fantastic opportunity for both seasoned shrimpers and those just starting out,” Belcher added. “With the larger-than-average shrimp readily available, it’s a perfect time to enjoy this exciting activity and savor a coastal Georgia favorite.”
The extension comes during a time when commercial fishermen are battling an influx of foreign caught and farm-raised shrimp that during the COVID-19 pandemic was stocked in freezers internationally when importing was suspended. Those stocks are now being sold at prices much lower than the wild-caught Georgia shrimp, which makes it a tough year for many Coastal Georgia shrimpers.
The issue prompted advocacy groups to file anti-dumping petitions on frozen warm water shrimp from other countries and to request a declaration of a fisheries disaster with the hopes that the federal government might aid ailing shrimp fishermen and seafood processors.
A class action lawsuit alleges Wilkinson County incorrectly values real estate for property taxes and seeking to remove members of the Board of Assessors, according to 13WMAZ.
For the past 16 years, Smith’s business property in Toomsboro in Wilkinson County has been valued at around $47,000. However, in 2022, he says that the county raised that by more than $100,000.
He says his property tax assessment stated he had a commercial well and septic tank on his property. Smith says those don’t exist.
About 150 other folks saw their property values increase and say the county added assets they didn’t have.
With that, the property owners face a higher property tax bill, since property taxes are based on the value of a person’s property.
Now, in court filings, Smith is one of over 100 folks going to court to remove the board of tax assessors just to get an answer.
Smith says many folks, including himself, have appealed their valuations. He says on his first appeal, his property value was brought down from $150,000 to $95,000. He filed another appeal, and like the others, he says he’s still been left with no answers.
The taxpayers group also argues assessors are violating state open-records and open-meetings laws, and discriminating against certain groups of property owners.
In court filings, the attorneys for the Wilkinson County property owners argue the County Board of Accessors inconsistently valued properties which, under Georgia law, can be grounds for removing members of the board from office.
They also argue that their inconsistent assessments violate Georgia’s Constitution, which stipulates “all taxation shall be uniform upon the same class of subjects.”
They also argue that the board violated Georgia’s open meetings law. In their filings, they alleged that there is no record of the board hiring Chief Appraiser Romona Viafale in an open meeting. They also claim the board made decisions on property appeals without meeting.
Some property owners in Wilkinson County had previously filed a similar complaint seeking to oust the Board of Tax Accessors, but the case was dismissed because they didn’t have the 100 property owners they needed.
Georgia’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has a significant backlog, according to WALB.
Georgia state representatives said at the beginning of 2023, 1,100 Department of Family And Children Services (DFACS) workers were hired throughout the state of Georgia, yet people throughout South Georgia said that even coming up here to their county DFACS office is not getting them answers as to why [their] SNAP benefits aren’t coming through.
“We want answers. What’s going on? Why is it taking so long for stuff to get done?” he said.
District 173 State Representative Darlene Taylor brought those same questions to DFACS officials after she said plenty of her constituents in Thomasville and Grady counties have come to her with the same issues.
“I think this has been a hiccup that has really hurt folks,” she said.
She said DFACS officials told her there’s a case backlog because of staffing shortages and the number of Georgians relying on these benefits.
WANF reported that the Department of Human Services (DHS), as of Thursday, has 45,774 total pending renewals, 20,792 of which are overdue with 13,141 pending state action.
According to DFACS’ most recent data from 2020, over 76,000 households throughout the 33 counties WALB covers rely on SNAP food stamps a month—with Dougherty County having 13,199 households alone. The number of families who rely on Medicaid a month is nearly just as many, with over 63,000 throughout South Georgia.
“One of the concerns we have are kids that are out of school. So they won’t have their regular meals at school. So we want to make sure that those SNAP Benefits get to those that are in need, especially at this time of the year,” Taylor said.
Taylor said there are some signs of relief on the way. On Monday, the Georgia Department of Community Health and DHS announced that more than $54 million will go towards supporting Medicaid and Peach Tree for Kids. Taylor also said DFACS officials told her they are working overtime and diligently looking to solve the backlog problem.
“They are addressing it. They are working with some of the technology folks to see if there is glitch things that they can do and they’ve improved their dashboard focusing on the oldest first and trying to keep people in order whoever has had an issue first,” she said.
Taylor plans to bring all of these concerns to the Georgia State Legislative session which starts back up in the new year. She said she’s hoping to bring much-needed change to the DFACS division.
“We do recognize this and it’s a sad thing that we’re having to depend on it to begin with. Most people don’t want to have to use these benefits, so we want to make it as speedy as we can,” she said.
Atlanta Public Schools reversed an earlier decision to keep teacher bonus money, according to the Associated Press via AccessWDUN.
Superintendent Richard Woods, in a letter to Atlanta Public Schools interim Superintendent Danielle Battle, said he was “baffled” by the Atlanta system’s claim that it had anticipated the bonus when it paid out a $1,000 “Mid-Year Holiday Retention Stipend” to its employees on Dec. 14, days before [Governor Brian] Kemp announced the plan for state money.
The 50,000-student system had originally said it would put the money in its bank account for other future priorities, but quickly changed its tune.
“We are committed to passing along any additional funds once funds are disbursed for the governor’s proposal and clarification is provided on which categories of employees should be covered by the bonus,” spokesperson Seth Coleman said in a statement.
The district said it had seen the money coming and “preemptively” paid it out early, but Woods said anything less than another $1,000 payment would be a “disservice” to teachers and staff.
“Let me be very clear: the intent of the state’s $1,000 retention pay supplement is not to backfill the Atlanta Public Schools budget or ‘share in the cost’ of additional recognition already provided by districts to teachers,” Woods wrote.
Statewide, Kemp said 196,000 teachers and support staff would get the bonus, as well as state and university employees.
Dawson City Council members voted to keep Tracey Hester on the job as City Manager, according to WALB.
Dawson City Manager Tracey Hester is returning to work Thursday. The 4-3 vote by council members just six days after Hester was put on administrative leave with pay.
During the Wednesday, Dec. 20, special called meeting, Dawson City Council members went into executive session for about an hour to discuss the employment of Hester, after a range of complaints including water bills not being issued on time.
WALB did try to speak with Mr. Hester, but he declined an interview. In addition to the City Manager’s employment, council members also voted that a forensic audit be conducted on the city about water meter issues.
The Georgia Cotton Commission is giving away 12,000 pair of socks to groups helping people who are homeless, according to WSAV.
The Georgia Cotton Commission has been giving out socks every holiday season for the past 5 years.
`“The amount of socks today that they are donating is 2,500 pairs of socks which is great and will be able to assist people facing homelessness in our community,” [said] Wanda Wesley, Outreach Director Chatham Savannah Authority for Homeless.
The goal is to give away 12,000 pairs of socks to different organizations that help people facing homelessness.
“Most socks are made out of cotton, so in effect this is our cotton farmers giving a percentage of their harvest back to support their communities. Chatham County doesn’t grow cotton anymore, but the work that organizations like the homeless authority do goes out into the rural communities where our farmers are just like the ripple effects of their products in Savannah,” [said] Taylor Sills, Executive Director Georgia Cotton Commission.
Lee County Commission Chair Billy Mathis will not serve again as Chair, according to the Albany Herald.
Mathis, who is in his second go-’round as a member of the Lee Commission, said he’s stepping down as chairman at the right time.
“Lee County is in the best financial shape it’s ever been in,” Mathis, who has law offices in Albany, said. “We’ve doubled our reserves, and we’re still growing.“I just decided, for a lot of reasons, that it’s time to step down from the chairmanship. I’ve been (in that position) for five years this time, and it’s time for someone else to step up and take the position. I have a very busy law practice, and I want to spend more time with my family — my daughter’s about to get married — so I will not seek to return to this seat.”
Mathis will remain a member of the commission; he has three years left on his current term.
As it does each year, the five-member Lee board will nominate and vote on its chairman during its first meeting of the new year.
Augusta Transit will provide free rides to public warming shelters, according to WJBF.
Administrators state that shelters are requiring proof of a shelter clearance from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office to be admitted for safety precautions.
Administrators advise individuals in need of a shelter clearance to go to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office before 5 P.M. to obtain documentation from the Records Bureau. If after 5 P.M. or if the individual is unable to go to the Records Bureau, they may call the Sheriff’s Office Dispatcher at (706) 821-1080 and a deputy will be sent to their location to provide the clearance.
According to Augusta Transit, the bus will start service at the Broad Street Transfer Facility at 3 P.M. and operate continuously until 7:30 P.M., but individuals, who are unable to get to the Broad Street Transfer Facility and need a ride should call (706) 821-1719 before 8 P.M.
Yanine Cortes announced her campaign for Gwinnett County Board of Education District 3, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
The growing field of candidates vying for Mary Kay Murphy’s seat on the Gwinnett County Board of Education grew a little larger on Thursday after Yanin Cortes announced her candidacy for the seat.
She is the fifth person to announce they will run for Murphy’s District 3 seat in the 2024 nonpartisan school board elections.
“Prioritizing our children’s needs amidst today’s divisive climate will be my first priority,” Cortes said.
Cortes joins a field of candidates for the District 3 seat that already includes Domonique Cooper, Kirk Buis, Steve Gasper and Demetrius Nelson. Since Gwinnett school board seats were changed to nonpartisan elections in 2022, the winner will be decided when voters cast their ballots in the May 21, 2024 election — or a runoff if one is needed.
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