On January 28, 1733, Georgia’s first colonists celebrated a day of thanksgiving for their safe arrival in Savannah and Chief Tomochichi’s granting them permission to settle on the Yamacraw Bluff.
On January 29, 1779, British forces captured Augusta, Georgia.
Walter F. George was born on January 29, 1878 in Preston, the county seat for Webster County, Georgia. Ron Daniels has a brief bio of the United States Senator who gave his name to a Law School, a courthouse, and a lake. The photo above is a bust in the town square of Vienna, Georgia, in Dooly County, where George made his home.
On January 29, 1892, the Coca Cola Company was incorporated in Georgia in Fulton County Superior Court.
On January 28, 1943, Governor Ellis Arnall signed a joint resolution of the Georgia House and Senate amending the Georgia Constitution to make the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia a constitutional board and reduce the power of the Governor over the Regents.
On January 29, 1955, Georgia Governor Marvin Griffin signed legislation granting the power to take land needed for the Stone Mountain Park through condemnation if negotiations to buy it fell through.
The movement to a constitutional board came after the loss of accreditation of all Georgia state higher education institutions for white people. The previous Governor, Eugene Talmadge, had engineered the firing of UGA’s Dean of the College of Education; after the Board of Regents initially refused to fire the Dean, Talmadge dismissed three members, and replaced them with new appointees who voted for the firing. Talmadge lost the 1942 election to Arnall.
Elvis Presley made his first appearance on television on January 28, 1956 on the Stage Show on CBS.
On January 29, 1977, Congressman Andrew Young resigned his seat to accept the nomination by President Carter as United States Ambassador to the United Nations.
On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff as many Americans watched on live television. President Ronald Reagan addressed the loss of seven astronauts.
Reagan had originally been scheduled to give his State of the Union that evening, but cancelled the speech. His address on the Challenger disaster was written by Peggy Noonan. The speech written by Noonan and delivered by Reagan is ranked as one of the top ten political speeches of the 20th Century.
On January 29, 1998, a bomb exploded in a Birmingham, Alabama abortion clinic, killing a police officer. Eric Rudolph would later admit to setting that bomb, along with the Centennial Park bombing in 1996, and the bombing of a Sandy Springs abortion clinic and an Atlanta bar in 1997.
On January 29, 2020, Georgia Congressman Doug Collins announced he would run against Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to the United States Senate by Gov. Brian Kemp.
“We’re in for the Georgia Senate race down here. I’ve still got a lot of work left to do to help this president finish this impeachment out, and we’re going to make a bigger announcement down here in Georgia,” he told the “Fox & Friends” hosts.
“The shortsightedness in this decision is stunning,” NRSC Executive Director Kevin McLaughlin said in a statement. “Doug Collins’ selfishness will hurt David Perdue, Kelly Loeffler, and President Trump. Not to mention the people of Georgia who stand to bear the burden of it for years to come. All he has done is put two senate seats, multiple house seats, and Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in play. The NRSC stands firmly behind Sen. Kelly Loeffler and urges anyone who wants to re-elect President Trump, hold the GOP senate majority, and stop socialism to do the same.”
Collins’ entrance into the race makes a runoff far more likely, which could potentially decide the balance of the Senate in a vote held in January, a month when most people are not accustomed to going to the polls.
Happy birthday today to Northwestern University (1851), Yale Daily News (1878), the first daily college newspaper in the country, the United States Coast Guard (1915), and the Lego brick, which was patented on January 28, 1958.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Under the Gold Dome Today & Tomorrow
Wednesday – January 28, 2026 (LD 8)
TBD Senate Rules : Upon Adjournment 450 CAP
8 AM HOUSE AGRICULTURE & CONS AFF 606 CLOB
8 AM Joint Appropr Sub Transport. 341 CAP
8 AM Cancelled- Senate Transportation 450 CAP
9 AM HOUSE RULES 341 CAP
10 AM HOUSE FLOOR SESSION (LD8) House Chamber
10 AM Senate Floor Session (LD 8) Senate Chamber
12:30 PM HOUSE Approp Sub Education 341 CAP
1 PM HOUSE JUDICIARY JUVENILE 406 CLOB
1 PM HOUSE PUBLIC SFTY & HOMELAND SEC 506 CLOB
1 PM HOUSE Approp Sub General Govt 606 CLOB
1 PM Senate Public Safety 450 CAP
1:30 PM HOUSE Leverett Sub Judy Non-Civil 132 CAP
1:30 PM HOUSE GAME, FISH & PARKS 415 CLOB
2 PM HOUSE HEALTH 403 CAP
2 PM HOUSE RURAL DEVELOPMENT 515 CLOB
2 PM Senate Agriculture & Consumer Aff. 307 CLOB
3 PM HOUSE GOVTAL AFFAIRS 606 CLOB
3 PM HOUSE INDUSTRY & LABOR 506 CLOB
3 PM Senate Finance MEZZ 1
4 PM Senate Health & Human Svcs 450 CAP
Thursday – January 29, 2026 (LD 9)
TBD Senate Rules : Upon Adjournment 450 CAP
8 AM HOUSE SMALL BUS DEV 506 CLOB
8 AM Senate Econ Dev & Tourism 450 CAP
10 AM Senate Floor Session (LD 9) Senate Chamber
1 PM Senate Education & Youth 307 CLOB
2 PM Senate State & Local Govt Ops MEZZ 1
2 PM Senate Judiciary 307 CLOB
3 PM Senate Reg Ind & Utilities 450 CAP
4 PM Senate Insurance & Labor MEZZ 1
Qualifying opened for candidates in a Special Election for House District 130, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
A March 10 special election has been called to fill the seat of state Rep. Lynn Heffner, who resigned in early January after publicly disclosing that a change of address moved her outside House District 130, making her ineligible to serve.
The district includes eastern and parts of southern Richmond County. The election, called a “jungle primary,” will have no primaries and will pit candidates of different parties against one another to win a simple majority. If no majority is declared, a runoff is scheduled for April 7.
As of Monday, which was the original qualifying start date, four of the five local candidates seeking the District 130 seat in the Georgia House of Representatives had filed their intentions to run with the State Ethics Commission. They include:
Democrat Sha’Qunta Calles is an Augusta community activist who curates a social media website providing colloquial accounts of local events. An online graphic announcing her candidacy calls for “leadership that listens, understands, and represents the realities of everyday life.”
Republican David Anthony Carson is an Augusta resident who filed his declaration of intent Dec. 30 with the State Ethics Commission. He lives in south Augusta in the Cypress Pointe neighborhood off Old Waynesboro Road.
Republican Thomas McAdams is the chief administrative officer for the Alleluia Christian Service Center in Augusta. His election website describes him as possessing “leadership and good discernment … packaged into a man of God.”
Democrat Sheila Clark Nelson, a retired postal employee, represented House District 125 for the Augusta area from 2017 to 2023, when Heffner won the district that was redrawn as the present District 130. Her election website said Nelson would “fight hardest for working families,” ”will reflect our shared values,” and “has the experience to deliver real results.”
Democrat Karen Gordon, who, according to the stat,e hadn’t yet filed with the ethics commission, publishes Urban Pro Weekly, a twice-monthly newspaper focused on Augusta’s Black community, and heads up an urban gardening and culture collaborative called Growing Augusta. In her campaign announcement Jan. 20, she cited her desire to “strengthen neighborhoods and expand local opportunity across the Augusta area.”
State legislation to regulate data centers has been proposed, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Statesboro Herald.
Anger and opposition to the rapid rise of data centers across Georgia has led to a surge of bills that would clamp down on the resource-consuming industry.
Georgia legislators have proposed seven bills regulating data centers by eliminating tax breaks, prohibiting costs from being passed on to residential electricity customers, or temporarily barring their construction entirely.
Data centers — hulking industrial buildings that power artificial intelligence and technology companies — have emerged as one of the hottest topics at the Georgia Capitol this year as they’ve proliferated across the state’s landscape in recent years. There are over 200 data centers in Georgia, according to Baxtel, a data center industry research firm.
State Sen. Matt Brass, the chairman of the powerful Senate Rules Committee, said residents are worried about the impact of large data centers being built in their communities.
Brass proposed Senate Bill 410, which would end Georgia’s sales tax exemption for new data centers but preserve it for existing facilities. Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed a bill in 2024 that would have eliminated the tax break entirely, citing concerns it would undermine business investment in the state.
“It started with concerns from folks back home. There’s a lot of angst over it,” said Brass, R-Newnan.
Data centers will still invest in Georgia even if they don’t get a tax break, Brass said, citing the state’s energy rates, business climate, weather and property values.
“There’s all these reasons they want to come here, and the tax incentive I don’t believe is one of them,” Brass said.
Georgia taxpayers effectively gave away $474 million to data centers during the fiscal year that ended in July, according to a recent report by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts.
Data centers produced 8,505 construction jobs and 1,641 operations jobs with a combined $1.2 billion added to the state’s economy, according to the department’s summary of the report.
The Data Center Coalition, a trade association that includes Amazon, Google and Meta, said Georgia has become the fastest-growing data center market in the country.
“Data centers are committed to being responsible neighbors that pay their full cost of service for the energy they use,” said Khara Boender, director of state policy for the Data Center Coalition. “We will continue to work with stakeholders at the state, local and industry level to strike the right balance that maximizes the benefit to Georgia taxpayers, protects against rate increases, and ensures data centers are a net positive for the state.”
Rising energy costs and data centers have become a major campaign issue this year after two Democrats unseated Republican incumbents last fall in elections for the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities.
State Rep. Ruwa Romman, D-Duluth, proposed a moratorium on new data center construction until March 1, 2027 in House Bill 1012.
“Before we permanently alter the landscape of our state, we have an obligation to properly regulate and assess both the benefits and impacts of these data centers on our communities,” said Romman, a Democratic candidate for governor. “They come to the table with all these promises, and when those promises don’t come true, it’s too late.”
Another bill that would protect residential customers from electricity costs of data centers is already advancing through the legislative process this year. Senate Bill 34, sponsored by Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, was debated last year but is being revived in committee hearings this week.
Other legislation calls for local governments to make public data centers’ water and electricity usage.
Data center bills pending in Georgia
SB 34: Prohibits costs associated with data center fuel generation and transmission from being included in residential electricity rates.
SB 408: Sunsets Georgia’s sales tax break for data centers on Jan. 1, 2027.
SB 410: Eliminates sales tax exemptions for new data centers.
SB 421: Requires local governments to disclose data centers’ water and electricity usage.
HB 528: Requires data centers to report their water consumption, electricity usage and community impacts.
HB 559: Sunsets Georgia’s sales tax break for data centers on Dec. 31, 2026.
HB 1012: Bans new data center construction until March 1, 2027.
Senate Bill 421 by State Sens. RaShaun Kemp (D-Atlanta) and Drew Echols (R-Gainesville), called “The Data Center Transparency Act,” would regulate data centers, according to AccessWDUN.
The bipartisan bill introduced on Thursday looks to prohibit any counties, municipal corporations, or other political subdivisions from entering nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) that would prohibit that body from disclosing electricity or water usage.
“Data centers are the hot-button issue all across the state of Georgia,” Echols said. “This bill, it’s really simple. It just says counties, cities, and authorities cannot agree to keep utility usage data secret.”
The bill’s first sponsor was Atlanta State Senator RaShaun Kemp (D-38).
“Senator Kemp and I … we came in together last year. Good guy, think a lot of him,” Echols said. “He came over and explained the bill to me … I thought it was a good idea.”
The bill comes as it has been reported that some areas have seen NDAs signed between communities and data centers.
The Wisconsin Watch reported on Monday that four communities signed NDAs, allowing data center proposals to go unnoticed.
Last year, the Virginia Mercury reported that 25 of 31 localities they investigated had NDAs with data center companies.
“I’m not anti-data center,” Echols said. “But … we need to do a better job as a state. Our processes need to be as transparent as possible.”
Echols added that if elected officials know what is going on, citizens ought to as well.
“I signed on as number two, I think that if it’s good enough for the electeds in the community to know … then it’s good enough for the citizens to know,” Echols said.
House Bill 1048 by State Rep. Scott Hilton (R-Peachtree Corners) would allow parents to decide whether to put their children in kindergarten at 5 years of age or 6, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post.
A bill that would let parents delay sending their children to kindergarten until they are 6 is now officially working its way through the legislative process in the Georgia General Assembly.
State Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, filed House Bill 1048 on Tuesday. The bill would let parents decide whether to enroll their children in kindergarten when they are 5 or 6. Currently, state law only says a child has to be enrolled in school when they are 6, but school districts have the leeway to decide whether to let parents “redshirt” their children so they start kindergarten when they are 6, or to send those children straight to first grade.
“This is so important to so many families — especially those with summer birthdays,” Hilton said in a statement. “Georgia law is currently silent on this issue and I want to make sure parents are empowered to make the best decision for their family.”
The bill evolved out of a controversy over kindergarten “redshirting” in Gwinnett County Public Schools.
GCPS procedures state students must be sent directly to first grade when they are 6, but for years the district has allowed parents to “redshirt” their children and start kindergarten a year late instead.
GCPS decided last fall to stop letting redshirting” happen, and to send 6-year-olds to first grade, regardless of whether they have been in kindergarten or not.
In my opinion, the list of state legislators as in-tune as Rep. Scott Hilton with the needs of parents and students in public schools is very short.
Senate Bill 338 by State Sen. David Lucas (D-Macon) would allow a Mayor of Macon-Bibb County to serve a third term and eliminate term limits for Commissioner, according to 13WMAZ.
A stalled proposal that would allow Macon-Bibb County mayors to seek a third term could still move forward in 2026, as its sponsor pushes to revive debate among local lawmakers and Mayor Lester Miller openly weighs his political future.
State Sen. David Lucas says he is not backing away from Senate Bill 338, despite the measure failing to advance during the 2025 legislative session. The bill would amend the 2012 consolidation law that merged Macon, Payne City and Bibb County, increasing the mayor’s term limit from two to three consecutive four-year terms and removing term limits for county commissioners.
Eliminating commission term limits would allow former commissioners who previously reached their term limits to seek reelection to the board.
The bill was read and referred on March 13, 2025, but never received final passage before the session ended.
Lucas said he introduced the legislation after the Macon-Bibb County Commission declined to act, even after formally backing the idea.“The delegation has yet to meet and make a decision on it,” Lucas said. “The county commissioners sent us a resolution in favor of it, and still nobody would do anything. You couldn’t even get a discussion going. So I introduced the bill so we can sit down, talk about it as a delegation, and decide what we’re going to do one way or the other.”
On Jan. 7, 2025, the commission voted 6–3 to approve a resolution supporting three terms for the mayor, matching the current three-term limit for commissioners.
To advance during the 2026 legislative session, SB 338 would need majority support from the Bibb County delegation in the Georgia General Assembly. The bill would also need approval from both the Georgia Senate and House.
Lucas said lawmakers remain divided over whether the issue should be decided by voters or handled as local legislation.
With the bill unresolved, Miller — now a year into his second term — has publicly acknowledged weighing whether to seek higher office if the charter is not changed. Miller has previously said he is considering a run for governor.
In a Facebook post shared Saturday, Miller said elected officials across Georgia are grappling with difficult choices as they consider leaving offices to which they were elected.
“As we enter 2026, numerous elected officials are grappling with the legal and political implications of vacating their current positions to pursue new offices,” Miller wrote. “Locally, several elected officials have resigned from their roles to seek higher offices within the district and state. Personally, I have thoroughly considered the possibility of doing so, primarily due to the inadequately structured local charter.”
Referencing local officials like his former mayor pro tem and former Sen. John F. Kennedy, Miller said the decision is not simple.
“It poses a considerable dilemma to leave a position that one was elected to with overwhelming community support,” he wrote. “However, the question arises as to whether serving in a larger capacity would ultimately benefit the community more.”
Lucas said he plans to call a meeting of the Bibb County legislative delegation to determine whether the proposal can move forward.
“We’re going to have a discussion,” Lucas said. “I’m going to call a meeting, sit down with everybody, and find out what people want to do. If we’ve got the votes to move it forward, then we move it forward. And if we don’t, then it’s just like it is right now.”
The bill’s fate will likely hinge on whether local lawmakers can agree — a key factor in how Georgia handles local legislation, according to UGA professor Charles Bullock.
“Georgia is not one of the states that gives the greatest scope of authority to local governments, so these kinds of changes end up at the Capitol,” Bullock said. “With local legislation, usually the arrangement is that if the legislators… from the affected community, in this case, Bibb County, agree with the idea, then the legislature rubber stamps it, defers to the local legislators.”
With the mayor already midway through his final allowable term under current law, Bullock said any effort to expand term limits is now working against the clock.
“If it takes too long, a mayor in his second term could be out of office before the change ever takes effect,” Bullock said. “Once you’re no longer holding office, you don’t have many opportunities to take actions, make statements, which the media is going to cover. You can fairly quickly kind of drop out of sight.”
Support for school cellphone bans appears to be increasing, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Tifton Gazette.
Georgia high school sophomores are looking ever more likely to lose their phones during the school day in their senior year, as lawmakers consider expanding a ban on personal devices.
New surveys suggest overwhelming support for the idea from parents and teachers. A ban from kindergarten through middle school takes effect next fall after state lawmakers passed it last year.
Now, the author of that law has legislation that would extend the ban to high schools starting in fall 2027.
Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, said he expects House Bill 1009 to get a first hearing in a couple of weeks.
Hilton said he had heard universal support from parents and teachers about his K-8 ban. Although the prohibition will not be enforced statewide until the fall, many schools have voluntarily banned phones ahead of schedule. He said he expects an expansion to high school to be similarly popular, with some caveats about logistics for older students.
“The concerns I’ve heard thus far are more around scheduling, you know, after school activities, things like that,” Hilton said.
New surveys indicate broad support for phone-free schools.
More than two-thirds of the roughly 3,000 administrators, teachers and other educators surveyed in 176 school districts by Georgia’s largest teacher association liked the idea, according to results out this week. High school teachers were even more enthusiastic, with 83% calling for a cellphone ban.
“Why do they want these bans? Because they believe that phones are very disruptive,” said Margaret Ciccarelli, director of legislative services for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, which surveyed its members last fall.
Similarly, a survey released this week by the Emory Center for Child Health Policy found 71% of responding Georgia parents want the K-8 cellphone ban extended to high schools.
Their answers in the survey, also taken last fall, indicate that they believe a ban would lead to more learning and social interaction and would improve mental health.
The 29% of parents who opposed a high school ban were mostly concerned about being disconnected from their child during a school emergency.
“Parents’ concerns about emergency access are valid and understandable. However, effective cellphone policies can address this by establishing rapid parent notification systems and guaranteed access to phones when needed,” Julie Gazmararian, professor of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health, wrote in a report about the survey. “Strong support for high school cellphone bans among parents suggests broad public readiness for policy action.”
Safety experts have testified at the Capitol that a phone in a student’s hand during an emergency can be a dangerous distraction from safety instructions given by teachers and emergency responders.
But Layla Contreras, 24, said people who think high school students do not need their phone in an emergency have never lived through one.
Her sister, Sasha, is a senior at Apalachee High School in Barrow County and texted her when a gunman entered the school in September 2024, killing four.
Contreras said her sister, 17, texted her to tell her the emergency was real — and that she loved her.
Layla Contreras added that the school was locked down again last week after a false alarm. Sasha texted her that time to relay the news, too.
Layla Contreras said high school students need their phones in an emergency and should be taught how to use them responsibly the rest of the time.
“We need to teach our kids more discipline and more responsibility rather than just taking it away, because when they enter the workforce,” she said, “they’re not going to take away their phones.”
The ban expansion has high-powered support. House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said in early January that he expected a “lively discussion” about banning cellphones in high school, acknowledging the competing views of those who see devices as a liability on regular school days versus those who see them as an asset during a crisis.
“Some of that communication certainly is good for the parent to understand that the child is safe,” Burns said, “but it also interferes with the safety protocols in the schools.”
On the Senate side, a bipartisan study committee empaneled by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican, recommended a ban on cellphones in high schools.
And in a hearing last week, Richard Woods, the state superintendent of schools, asked lawmakers for such a ban. The Republican elected official said his teacher and student advisory councils, the latter including a student shot at Apalachee High, rank mental health as the top concern for students.
Studies show the negative academic impact and emotional strain of screen time, Woods said. “This is both an academic and a mental health issue.”
House Resolution 1053 by State Rep. David Clark (R-Buford) would rename Sawnee Mountain in Forsyth County after President Trump, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
David Clark, a state representative from Buford, Georgia, called Trump “one of the most transformative presidents in our nation’s history,” in a Jan. 27 post on X.
Clark said he “introduced a resolution to rename Sawnee Mountain in Forsyth County to Trump Mountain to honor (Trump’s) historic legacy of Making America Great Again.”
The resolution, HR 1053, was sponsored by Clark as well as Republicans Mitchell Horner (Ringgold), Reynaldo “Rey” Martinez (Loganville) and Josh Bonner (Fayetteville), of the state House of Representatives.
“Donald J. Trump stands as the most consequential president of the United States for our generation, having fundamentally reshaped American political discourse, governance, economic policy, foreign affairs, and the national debate over constitutional liberties,” the resolution says.
It goes on to praise Trump’s office for economic growth prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, energy independence, tax reform, unemployment numbers and judge appointments.
The town hall held in Forsyth County in 2024 “holds a unique place in modern American political history” because it focused on female voters, according to the resolution. The resolution sponsors say the town hall brought national attention to the county and solidified Georgia’s role as a battleground state in national politics.
The proposal of the resolution comes as Clark continues his run for lieutenant governor in the Georgia midterms.
Well, I will say this: President Trump has certainly reshaped the debate over constitutional liberties and in the process created millions of new social media lawyers.
Georgia state legislators discussed immigration enforcement, according to Atlanta News First via WTOC.
Deadly encounters involving federal immigration agents in Minnesota are now fueling a heated debate inside Georgia’s State Capitol, where lawmakers are sharply divided over immigration enforcement, public safety and constitutional rights.
The discussion follows the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a nurse, during a confrontation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border control agents in a Minneapolis neighborhood. Video of the encounter, which shows Pretti being wrestled to the ground before shots were fired, has circulated widely online.
Less than three weeks earlier, another person, Renee Good, was killed a few miles away in a separate incident. Both deaths remain under investigation.
The videos have reignited protests nationwide and prompted warnings from Georgia Democrats that similar violence could occur in the state.
“What happened in Minnesota has become a warning sign for Georgia,” lawmakers said during debate at the Capitol, pointing to rising tensions surrounding immigration enforcement and public demonstrations.
Democratic lawmakers accused ICE of escalating enforcement tactics and overreach, arguing that constitutional rights are being undermined.
“They’re not just targeting criminals — that messaging is false,” said Rep. Ruwa Romman (D-Duluth). “They’re targeting children. They’re targeting families. They’re targeting everybody. And without the ability to assert our rights, we simply don’t have them.”
Some Democrats have proposed legislative action.
Rep. Bryce Berry urged colleagues to support House Bill 470, which would designate schools, hospitals and churches as protected spaces during immigration enforcement.
Across the Capitol, state Sen. Josh McLaurin introduced a resolution condemning Pretti’s killing and calling on lawmakers to safeguard the rights to peaceful assembly and gun ownership from what he described as federal enforcement abuse.
“Just remember that somebody’s voice has to be raised for this to stop,” McLaurin said. “Somebody has to.”
Republican lawmakers pushed back, warning that inflammatory rhetoric could contribute to further violence.
Rep. Clint Crowe, a former law enforcement officer, said police are being unfairly portrayed.
“Words matter,” Crowe said. “When law enforcement is dehumanized and demonized, it creates an environment that leads to people getting hurt.”
Outside the legislative debate, the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association sought to reassure the public, emphasizing that local deputies are not immigration agents, even though state law requires them to cooperate with ICE in certain circumstances.
“Our sheriffs, our police departments, our state law enforcement — they protect each other, and they operate under the rule of law,” said Terry Norris with the association.
As protests continue across the country, Georgia Democrats have scheduled a press conference and demonstration at the Capitol later this week. Republican leaders, meanwhile, say no changes to state law are expected during this legislative session.`
The United States Department of Justice filed a new suit seeking unredacted voter records, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.
The U.S. Department of Justice has again sued Georgia for the state’s voter list — including voters’ personal information — days after a federal judge dismissed a similar lawsuit filed in the wrong court.
The Trump administration’s demand on Tuesday is its latest attempt to force Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to turn over voter registration information as part of a nationwide effort to collect voters’ data.
Raffensperger’s office has said state law requires him to protect voters’ driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, and birth dates — the same information the DOJ wants for an investigation of voter registration accuracy.
“Georgia conducts as much (voter list) maintenance as it is permitted to do under federal law,” according to a court filing by Raffensperger’s office in the case dismissed last week.“… The DOJ is not entitled to confidential information about every Georgia voter.”
State election officials canceled nearly 471,000 voter registrations last year of people who moved or didn’t participate in recent elections.
Republicans in the Georgia Senate have sided with the DOJ and against Raffensperger, a fellow Republican who is running for governor against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Attorney General Chris Carr.
The Senate could soon vote on a nonbinding resolution that urges Raffensperger to comply with the DOJ.
Raffensperger’s office provided the DOJ with a public version of Georgia’s voter list that redacted voters’ personal information.
A federal judge dismissed the DOJ’s first lawsuit for Georgia’s voter list last week because it was filed in the incorrect judicial circuit.
The DOJ previously sued in Macon instead of in Atlanta, where the secretary of state’s office is based. The new lawsuit was filed in Atlanta.
The Georgia Department of Transportation released a report on a proposed passenger rail route between Atlanta and Savannah, according to WRDW.
A Georgia Department of Transportation report shows major progress on a plan that could bring passenger rail service to Augusta.
The proposal would connect Savannah and Atlanta by rail, with an option to pass through Augusta.
The ATL-SAV Passenger Rail Study saw significant progress in Fiscal Year 2025, according to GDOT’s 92-page Accountability and Investment Report.
The study included completion of key technical analyses and stakeholder engagement activities.
With that, the study team developed alternative route corridors and conducted nationwide surveys to better identify travel patterns in the study area.
GDOT said these efforts position the project to focus on specific routes for further development in Fiscal Year 2026.
If ultimately constructed, the rail line could offer a faster, more reliable alternative to driving or flying, with the potential to stimulate economic activity in cities across Georgia.
Columbus City Council member Bruce Huff announced he will retire, according to WTVM.
Columbus City Councilor Bruce Huff announced Tuesday he will not seek re-election after representing District 3 for more than 15 years.
The 68-year-old councilor made the announcement during the city council’s regular meeting, saying he will retire when his term ends at the end of the year in December.
Former Republican State Representative Bill Hembree has died, according to the AJC.
A newly-elected Katie Dempsey was about to be sworn in as a state representative, as the Georgia legislature prepared for its 2007 session.
She answered a survey from the house speaker, one of the questions being where she wanted to sit on the chamber’s floor.
“I asked to be seated next to someone who could teach me everything I needed to know because I didn’t know much.” Dempsey said. That someone turned out to be Bill Hembree, a veteran lawmaker from Douglas County who became a close friend.
“I learned so much from him” she said. “I learned to listen more than I speak and to be careful with my words.”
Hembree, a former GOP state representative from Winston,died Jan.15 after an eight-year battle with cancer. He was 59.
He’s survived by wife, Beth Camp Hembree; sons Will, Thomas and Miles; and by siblings, Arubra Hembree Gardner, Vista Hembree Richardson and Phil and Johnny Hembree.
Hembree passed a law to help blind students get braille instruction. And he helped bring Georgia Highlands College to Douglas County.
His way of doing legislative business was aboveboard and principled and won him respect, said longtime friend, former state Rep. Jeff Lewis.
“He was never a grandstander. If he wanted something done, he would go to see people in the right position, who could carry a bill to the next level. He worked it that way which was a smart way to do it,” said Lewis.
Also respected was his penchant for thorough research and superior listening skills.
“And you could trust what he was saying,” said Lewis.
Visitation is set from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Jones-Wynn Funeral Home Douglas Chapel with funeral services Friday at noon at First United Methodist Church of Douglasville, Prestly Mill Road.
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