Georgia and United States History Today
Savannah, Georgia was captured by British troops on December 29, 1778.
Texas was admitted as a state on December 29, 1845. Statehood for Texas was a major issue in the 1844 United States Presidential campaign.
The City of Atlanta was re-incorporated on December 29, 1847, changing from a “town” to a “city,” a meaningless distinction, though the date is often cited as the creation of Atlanta.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
State Representative Brad Raffensperger (R-Johns Creek) on the need for House Bill 713, which would prevent rapists who impregnate their victims from claiming parental rights to prevent prosecution.
Lobbyists are often denigrated by candidates seeking office and by citizens who think they wield too much influence. The best lobbyists wield whatever influence they have by providing timely, accurate information about the businesses, industries, or nonprofit groups they represent. Especially in highly-technical areas, or those involving the interaction of federal laws and programs with state law, they can help solve problems and challenges faced by state and local governments.
Linda Womack was held in universal high esteem by those with whom she worked, and by those at the Capitol who benefited from her years of experience representing Emory, Emory Healthcare and other organizations. She died earlier this year and is missed by many.
Also leaving the building for what we hope will be a long and pleasant retirement, is Georgia Association of Convenience Stores President Jim Tudor, who represented the industry for more than 35 years after starting in the industry at 7-Eleven.
Georgia Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols has a new piece posted at FreedomWorks about how to tell if a candidate or elected official is really a “conservative.” It gives a great view of the philosophical underpinnings of the brand of conservatism that is concerned with limited government and individual liberty
The trend of increasingly expensive judicial elections shows no sign of slowing down. From the Associated Press,
In 2014, the last major election year, 19 states held elections for their top courts. Spending exceeded a combined $34.5 million, with much of the money coming from special interests, according to a report by Justice at Stake, the Brennan Center for Justice and the National Institute on Money in State Politics.
The report noted the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case, which opened the door for corporations, unions and other interest groups to spend unlimited amounts as long as they do not call specifically for the election or defeat of a candidate.
In 2014, outside groups represented a higher percentage of all spending than ever before in judicial elections, or nearly a third of all money spent, according to the report.
An emerging player is the Republican State Leadership Committee, which spent roughly $3.7 million on state judicial races in eight states during the 2014 election. The group is dedicated to electing conservatives at all levels of state government and launched its Judicial Fairness Initiative to ensure that Republican-backed legislation would not be derailed by “an activist judicial branch,” said Matt Walter, the group’s president.
“Where we have elections, it’s important for the voters to have a balanced flow of information so they can make a decision about what judges they want to have,” Walter said.
Additional legislation to move Georgia forward in criminal justice reform is likely to be offered in the 2016 Session, continuing a theme of reducing the jail population and preventing repeat offenses by those who earn release.
Georgia’s ambitious criminal justice reforms are now in their fifth year, and advocates will ask lawmakers in the upcoming General Assembly to enact more measures that give offenders re-entering society a better chance to find a job and a roof over their heads.
The 2016 initiative will try to fix problems with the First Offender Act. It will ask lawmakers to let drug offenders keep their driver’s licenses and get food stamps. It will request that a number of inmates sentenced for drug possession become eligible for parole.
Since taking office, Gov. Nathan Deal has made the reform effort a top legislative priority.
“While it is important that our criminal justice system punish those who have harmed the lives and property of our citizens, it should also seek to change the direction of their lives so that they will not repeat their criminal conduct upon release,” Deal said.
A central theme behind Deal’s initiatives has been to reserve costly prison beds for violent and predatory offenders and substitute rehabilitation for nonviolent lawbreakers.
Co-chair Michael Boggs, an appeals court judge, said the council will ask legislators to address a federal law that imposes a lifetime ban on anyone convicted of a drug-related felony from receiving food stamps.
The law gives states the option of limiting or eliminating the ban altogether. Seven states, including Georgia, have failed to do so. The council will ask Georgia to join the states that have lifted the ban.
In November 2016, Georgia voters will be asked to approve a measure to help funds services for kids who were caught up in human trafficking. Good Housekeeping has an article on the legislation and the public face of “Rachel’s Law.” I hope you’ll click the link and read the article in its entirety.
I learned that sex trafficking is when someone is forced into sexual activities to earn the trafficker money. We often hear about it happening overseas, but it’s also a problem here in the U.S, with 3,598 cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline in 2014. Anybody lured into the sex trade under the age of 18 is considered a victim of trafficking.
I’d been blaming myself for what happened — for going to Florida, for not being able to stop them from advertising me on the streets and the Internet and from selling me. But that day, Ms. Williams told me that I didn’t say “yes” to being trafficked.
Ms. Williams also has a safe refuge for girls under the age of 18 who have experienced sexual trafficking called Living Water for Girls, where she paired me up with a counselor. Through counseling and all the community partners of the Living Water for Girls program, I learned to see myself in a new light and to thrive in my own resilient and beautiful skin: I now tell people that my name is not Victim. My name is not Survivor. My name is Rachel — and today, I am alive and truly thankful to say that I am thriving!
So, when Ms. Williams told me that Georgia State Representative Andy Welch asked if one of her survivors would want to lend their voice, experience, and name to a bill he was writing to help child sex trafficking victims, I knew it had to be me. I had to let everyone know that what happened to me is a crime and that no one deserves to be a victim of it, and I’ll do whatever it takes to prevent as many people from experiencing sex trafficking as possible.
Representative Welch, Ms. Williams, and I sat down and discussed what the bill would consist of and the process of crafting and passing it. They made sure I understood what it really meant to share some of my experience with the entire country. They then worked with other representatives and senators to create Senate Bill 8, which became the Safe Harbor/Rachel’s Law Act, and Senate Resolution 7.
I share this deeply personal part of my life to help prevent others from experiencing what I went through. I know firsthand the trauma, stigma, and humiliation that comes with sexual violence and trafficking. I was targeted, befriended, and lured through social media. I was only 17! This happens every day to other people my age, and even younger. I want to give them hope. I pray that they all see something in me that will inspire them not to give up on life and to understand that sexual violence is a crime that was committed against them; they did not victimize themselves.
Johns Creek businessman Ben Cowart announced he will run for Sheriff of Fulton County in 2016.
A graduate of Dunwoody High School, Cowart has owned and operated several successful businesses during the past few decades and also served as a Reserve Deputy and Reserve Officer for several Law Enforcement offices including the Fulton and Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department and also for the cities of Lawrenceville and Norcross.
Cowart specifically mentioned the Fulton County Jury Duty experience as an area which would receive immediate attention from his Administration.
“Jurors come in to Atlanta from all over Fulton County, which is nearly 60 miles from North to South and they deserve better security and more responsive service than they are currently receiving from the Sheriff’s Department. I will make sure that the parking lots and bus service used to transport the Jurors is safer and more secure than it is today,” said Cowart.
Fighting Drug Overdoses
When I was growing up in Gwinnett County, drug overdoses were unheard of, but suburban Georgia is seeing record numbers of overdoses, many of which are tied to the synthetic opioid Fentanyl, which is sometimes added to heroin to make the high stronger or sold as a counterfeit version of oxycodone.
Nationally, drug overdose deaths rose 7 percent in 2014, with Georgia overdose deaths rising more than 10 percent from 2013.
From National Public Radio,
All around North America, U.S. drug officials warn, some drug dealers are lacing heroin with an illicit version of the potent anesthesia drug fentanyl. The dangerous combination is quickly killing unsuspecting users — and worsening the nation’s epidemic of deaths from heroin overdose.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin, and 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
Regional drug dealers add the illicit form of fentanyl to the heroin they sell in hopes of restoring the potency of a product that’s been diluted by dealers higher up the distribution chain.
“Heroin is bad enough, but when you lace it with fentanyl, it’s like dropping a nuclear bomb on the situation,”says Mary Lou Leary, a deputy director in the White House’s office of National Drug Control Policy. “It’s so, so much more dangerous.”
There were at least 700 fentanyl-related deaths nationwide in a period from late 2013 through 2014, say federal officials. And many states, as well as Canadian provinces, are reporting a sudden wildfire of overdose deaths.
And closer to home, from WSB-TV,
Lisa Hicks says her 23-year-old son Joseph Patterson fatally overdosed after a friend sold him what he believed was commonly prescribed pain medication.
“They were counterfeit pills. They were stamped to look like oxycodone, but it was fentanyl,” said Hicks.
Hicks has launched a petition drive on Change.org to rally support for “Joe’s Law.” The proposed legislation would stiffen penalties for those who deal dangerous mislabeled drugs.
“We’re asking for greater penalties, especially when you’re trying to mask or disguise what a pill is, especially with something like fentanyl. Right now, drug dealers are acting like this is a victimless crime. They don’t care,” Hicks said.
Another provision under the proposed law would require those who witness a drug overdose to call for help, according to Hicks.
And from the Gainesville Times,
Hicks is starting a petition and is working to have a bill drafted to create harsher punishments for manufacturers of Schedule II drugs — which can be dangerous — to look like a different drug.
“(What) we would also like is that if an individual or group is caught manufacturing or distributing fentanyl or a Schedule II substance … that they are also charged with an assault or a violent charge,” Hicks said of prospective legislation to be called “Joe’s Law.” “You know it’s dangerous, but you’re intending to hurt somebody with it.”
Hicks also would like to create a provision that would require people who witness people in trouble to be required to call 911 and emergency services.
“It doesn’t take a lot of effort to pick up the phone and call 911, especially in this day and age,” Hicks said.
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