Patrick Henry addressed the Virginia Convention in Richmond on March 23, 1775, stating, “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”
On March 23, 1861, the Georgia Secession Convention adopted a new state Constitution to be submitted to a referendum of the voters on the first Tuesday in July and then adjourned.
On March 23, 1972, in the case of Gooding v. Wilson, the United States Supreme Court held that a Georgia statute, OCGA § 26-6303, which provided: “Any person who shall, without provocation, use to or of another, and in his presence . . . opprobrious words or abusive language, tending to cause a breach of the peace . . . shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,” was unconstitutionally vague and violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan called for the development of an anti-missile system that would come to be known as the Strategic Defense Initiative.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Governor Brian Kemp issued Executive Order #03.22.23.01, ordering flags on state buildings and properties to fly at half-staff on Saturday, March 25, 2023 in honor of the late State Rep. Letitia “Tish” Naghise.
Under the Gold Dome Today – Legislative Day 38
TBD Senate Rules Committee: Upon Adjournment – 450 CAP
8:00 AM Natural Resources & Envt Resource Mgmt Sub – 606 CLOB
8:00 AM Senate Children & Families – 307 CLOB
9:00 AM CANCELED HOUSE MOTOR VEHICLES – 606 CLOB
9:00 AM HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE – 341 CAP
9:00 AM Senate Transportation – 450 CAP
10:00 AM HOUSE FLOOR SESSION (LD 38) – House Chamber
10:00 AM Senate Regulated Industries – 450 CAP
11:00 AM Cancelled – Senate Public Safety – 450 CAP
11:00 AM Senate Urban Affairs – 125 CAP
1:00 PM WAYS & MEANS – 406 CLOB HYBRID
1:00 PM Senate Floor Session (LD 38) – Senate Chamber
More from the AJC on the apparent rift between House and Senate:
The feud between the Georgia House and Senate over hospital regulations ratcheted up on Wednesday, with no sign of either side backing down.
The complicated battle has pitted House leaders and Gov. Brian Kemp against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his allies in the Senate.
The Wellstar Health System is one of the fiercest opponents of a Jones-backed measure to make it easier to build new hospitals in smaller counties without state signoff.
Part of the company’s objections are based on private plans for a new hospital in Jones’ native Butts County that could be placed on a multimillion tract of Jones’ family’s land. Wellstar executives have said that would endanger two of its nearby hospitals by poaching patients and staff from its existing facility.
Jones has responded by engineering a series of attacks against the Cobb-based medical system. Senate leaders stripped $105 million from the state’s higher education budget in protest of a publicly-funded upgrade to a health records system for the exact same sum that could benefit Wellstar.
And on Wednesday, Senate Appropriations Chair Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, presented an item to gut a sales tax exemption for Wellstar, the AJC’s budget expert James Salzer reported.
The amendment was tacked onto a House tax bill at a Senate Finance Committee hearing and would nix the sales tax exemption on goods purchased by hospitals like Wellstar if they have recently closed large in-patient facilities.
Wellstar last year closed the Atlanta Medical Center in Atlanta and an affiliated complex in East Point over the loud objectives of state and local leaders.
But there’s a rub: Because of the way the tax measure is written, it could also inadvertently apply to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, which is planning to close its Egleston facility in Atlanta and replace it with an expanded new hospital.
As required, CHOA filed a certificate of need as a part of those plans to expand, but could still get caught up in lawmakers’ back-and-forth. An aide to the lieutenant governor tells us the language should be revised to exempt CHOA later today.
Will it clear the Legislature? It’s very unlikely. But it’s yet another indication of the increasing hostility between different GOP-led factions under the Gold Dome.
The Georgia Senate Committee on Health & Human Services rewrote House Bill 520, the mental health bill, according to the Associated Press via AccessWDUN.
the Senate Health and Human Services Committee didn’t take a vote on House Bill 520 and didn’t schedule another meeting before a Thursday deadline for bills to advance out of Senate committees.
Committee Chairman Ben Watson, a Savannah Republican, said that means a two-thirds vote of the Senate would be required to set aside normal rules and vote on the bill after the deadline. When asked whether he would seek that move, Watson said “That’s probably not my question to answer.”
That’s an apparent reference to Senate Republican leaders who on Wednesday escalated a dispute with the House over hospital permitting, threatening end-of-session talks on the budget, mental health and other issues. The session is scheduled to end next Wednesday.
House Speaker Jon Burns, a Newington Republican, has made further changes to mental health a top priority, a year after then-speaker David Ralston pushed through an overhaul in the last session before he died.
Mary Margaret Oliver, a Decatur Democrat and House co-sponsor, said immediately after the meeting that she believed that although more House-Senate talks were needed, that the bill was workable.
But Senate support remains uncertain. A spokesperson for Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones criticized the form in which the measure came over from the House even after the committee met Wednesday, including a claim that the bill expanded Medicaid, which Watson refuted during the meeting.
“HB 520 came with a $71 million annual price tag that was not addressed until it crossed over to the Senate chamber,” spokesperson Ines Owen said in a statement. “That cost, plus the limited Medicaid expansion in the initial bill have major implications on the state and need more time to be fully evaluated.”
This morning, the Senate Committee on Children and Families recommended passage of a rewritten House Bill 144, which now incorporate legislation to define “antisemitism” in Georgia law, according to the AJC.
The Senate Children and Families Committee approved House Bill 144 on a 6-2 vote, putting it on track for final votes in the House and Senate before this year’s legislative session ends Wednesday.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Republican Senate leaders orchestrated the bill’s comeback after other senators tabled it earlier this week following disputes about how to define antisemitism.
Senators prioritized the bill because Jones believed it was “an issue of public importance,” said state Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, a Republican from Marietta and the committee’s chairwoman.
“Threats and attacks against Jewish children and families in all of our districts can’t be tolerated in Georgia,” Kirkpatrick said.
The bill defines antisemitism so that it would be included under Georgia’s hate crimes law, which allows harsher criminal penalties against those who target victims on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, sex, national origin, religion, or physical or mental disability.
House Bill 144 is similar to the previous antisemitism legislation, House Bill 30, which adopts into state law the definition from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The new bill makes reference to an executive order by former President Donald Trump in 2019 that incorporated the alliance’s definition.
Lawmakers can rewrite bills at any moment’s notice, and especially do so in the last days of the annual legislative session, as a way to advance proposals that had previously been blocked. Before senators amended HB 144 to cover protections against antisemitism, the bill would have strengthened the rights of people under the guardianship of an adult.
The committee vote to approve the bill was supported by five Republicans and one Democrat, while two Democrats opposed the legislation.
The bill could come to a vote in the full state Senate next week. The state House approved the earlier version of the legislation on a 136-22 vote.
State Rep. Jason Ridley (R-Chatsworth) wrote a legislative update published in the Dalton Daily Citizen News.
Monday, March 13, brought the tenth week of the 2023 legislative session. Following our Crossover Day, we have set our focus towards reviewing Senate legislation, now under consideration in the House. In addition to reviewing Senate bills, the last days of session will be an ongoing to effort to ensure our legislative agenda passes the Senate floor and reaches Gov. Brian Kemp for final consideration.
Our efforts to improve infant and maternal health outcomes continue through the passage of Senate Bill 46. If signed into law, the bill would expand prenatal syphilis and HIV testing to be administered throughout a pregnancy, not exclusively following birth. Sadly, pregnant mothers can pass syphilis and HIV to their unborn babies, which can cause serious complications if left untreated. This bill would ensure that providers across the state give pregnant mothers this optional testing at earlier stages of their pregnancy to protect their own health and the health of their baby.
Our efforts to protect our senior citizen community from financial exploitation continues through the passage of Senate Bill 84. This bill would require financial advisors or supervisors to notify the Secretary of State’s Office if they suspect a person over 65 years of age, suffering with mental or physical incapacitation, is being financially exploited. The advisor could also inform a victim’s designated contact if the person is not considered a suspect. Further, the investment advisor has the right delay/deny suspicious disbursement requests, while investigating the activity. Upon discovery, advisors have the option to report these findings to the state, within a certain period.
Georgia’s budding young entrepreneurs can now legally pursue their small business dreams as children will be allowed to set up lemonade stands in their neighborhoods without a permit. Senate Bill 55 would allow children to sell non-consumable goods, pre-packaged food items and non-alcoholic beverages, such as lemonade, without requiring permits, licenses or incurring taxes if the annual revenue is less than $5,000.
The State House passed Senate Bill 47 by Sen. Chuck Hufstetler (R-Rome) to place vaping on the same regulatory footing as traditional smoking, according to WALB.
Georgia’s 2005 Smoke-Free Air Act says that people can’t smoke indoors in many public places, although it excludes some places including tobacco stores, bars that only admit patrons older than 18, and privately owned convention rooms.
“It puts vaping on the same status as smoking cigarettes,” said House Public Health Committee Chairman Sharon Cooper, a Marietta Republican. “It doesn’t expand anything. It just says if you can’t smoke in an area, you can’t vape in an area.”
The state Department of Public Health is supporting the measure. In 2019, the department reported it had identified 42 cases of vaping-associated illness in Georgia, including six deaths.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division (EPD) received more than 170,000 comments on a proposed titanium mine near the Okefenokee Swamp, according to The Brunswick News.
Atlanta lawyer Josh Marks said Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals continues a concerted effort to get mining approved because the company claims there are “billions of dollars of minerals” at the proposed mining site.
“We understand that EPD has received over 170,000 comments on the project, which is by far the largest number of comments ever submitted for a permit application in the history of Georgia,” Marks said. “U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Park Service submitted joint comments that strongly challenge the mining plan and EPD’s analysis, and also say that the federal government needs to retake jurisdiction over the project.”
Marks said the comments by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and National Park Service “reinforce in the strongest way” what other scientists are saying.
“The analyses by both Twin Pines and EPD are grossly defective, and the mining use plan should be rescinded,” he said. “And the recommendation for the Corps (of Engineers) to take back jurisdiction over the project is absolutely correct. EPD should suspend its review of the permit while the corps addresses the jurisdictional issue.”
Federal scientists have delivered their most detailed critique yet of an Alabama company’s plan to mine near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, casting serious doubt on the claims of the company and state environmental regulators, who have repeatedly said the project poses no harm to the refuge.
The new analysis by hydrologists at the National Park Service (NPS) found ‘critical shortcomings’ in the model the company used, which they say “obfuscates the true impacts from mining on the refuge.” As a result, the scientists say the model cannot reliably predict how water levels in the swamp or surrounding ecosystems will be affected by the mine.
The findings are likely to give new ammunition to opponents of the project, who have argued for years that the strip mine — planned less than three miles from the Okefenokee’s edge — would permanently damage the fragile ecosystem.
Meanwhile, a separate letter from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) — the agency responsible for protecting the refuge’s plants and animals — questions whether the project needs a full federal environmental review to proceed, rather than the state permitting process it’s currently required to clear.
Eric W. Bell II was elected to State House District 75, according to the Associated Press via AccessWDUN.
In the legislative race, Bell, a Democratic activist and former Navy officer won more than 60% of the vote in a three candidate field. Now governmental affairs coordinator at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Bell beat fellow Democrat Herman “Drew” Andrews and Republican Della Ashley.
The House District 75 seat, covering central and southern parts of Clayton County including parts of Jonesboro, became vacant earlier this year after Democratic Rep. Mike Glanton stepped down for health reasons.
One House district remains vacant after first-term Democrat Letitia “Tish” Naghise died earlier this month after an illness. Gov. Brian Kemp set a May 16 election to fill the vacancy in House District 68, which includes Atlanta suburbs in southern Fulton and northern Fayette counties.
Bell replaces former state Rep. Mike Glanton, who resigned in January. Both Bell and Glanton are Democrats.
Bell is a Morehouse College graduate who now works as government affairs coordinator at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, according to his website.
He ran a campaign that emphasized teacher pay raises, public safety and health care expansion.
Bell received about 62% of the vote in the race against Democrat Herman “Drew” Andrews and Republican Della Ashley, according to unofficial results.
Athens-Clarke County voters elected Melissa Link to the District 2 seat on the County Commission, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
Link, who previously served as District 3 commissioner, defeated Kirrena Gallagher in the special election by a vote count of 531 to 307.
The election only attracted about 11.2% of the registered voters who could have cast votes.
The election filled the seat vacated when Mariah Parker resigned and moved out of Athens. Link had served on the commission for eight years until new district lines were created and she was moved out of District 3.
Jonesboro voters elected the city’s first Black mayor this week, according to 11Alive.
The city has never had a mayor of color despite the diversity of Clayton County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 73% of people who live in Clayton County are Black.
Jonesboro has been in existence since 1859, and it was at a 2005 city council meeting that Donya Sartor noticed something.
“I didn’t see any person of color, and at that moment I realized representation is really important,” Sartor said.
That lack of representation prompted Sartor to run for office. She became a councilwoman, and now she’ll become the very first Black mayor in the city’s history.
“I’m really excited about that. Whenever there’s a first for any community, I think that’s something that everybody should celebrate,” Sartor said. “Indeed, I am the first Black mayor, but I’m really looking forward to doing the work for all of our citizens.”
LaGrange voters also elected their city’s first Black mayor, according to WTVM.
Back In 1998, Reverend Edmondson was elected to the LaGrange City Council as a representative for District 2. During his tenure, he has helped bring projects to LaGrange like ‘The Thread’ and ‘Great Wolf Lodge’. Edmondson says he is overwhelmed with joy to be the new mayor of LaGrange.
“It means a lot to me to be the first African American mayor of the city, but I’m going to be the mayor of Lagrange not just an African American mayor because I can look at my color every day and know who I am but I’ll be the mayor for a whole city of LaGrange.”
Edmondson ran for mayor back in the 90s. Over a decade later, he says with him being the first Black mayor he wants underprivileged kids to never give up.
“Background that I came from at risk children – I want to show them that wherever you are does not determine are you going.”
“Some of the districts feel as though they’ve been given other crumbs district two feel as though they’ve been given the crumbs. Well we have someone at the head of the table now. We’ve been sitting at the table but now we have someone at the head of the table. So instead of getting the crumbs since they said that instead of getting crumbs now they have a piece of the pie.”
His predecessor Mayor Jim Thornton retired last year after being at the helm for over five years.
Blythe voters elected a new Mayor and City Council member, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
Voters in the small Richmond County city on Tuesday voted for Tom Cobb as their next mayor. The former mayor won 157 votes while Blythe City Councilman Ed LaJoie had 70 votes.
Cobb served as mayor from 2000-2010 and was elected again in 2017, but declined to take the office due to health issues. He is also a retired Army CW4 and co-owns Lek’s Unique Consignment with his wife Lek.
Joining Cobb in leading Blythe will be Rebecca Bartlett Newsome as a new city council person. She came out ahead with 113 votes while veteran and businessman Michael Ringer got 71 and technician Phillip Stewart got 42.
If my math is correct, Ms. Newsome garnered exactly 50% of the votes cast. Does that not send the race into a runoff? Not necessarily. Some municipal elections have rules specific to a single city, and a 2019 notice of a Blythe election states,
“This is a non-partisan election, and the two (2) candidates for the office of councilmember receiving the highest and second highest number of votes shall be elected…. A run-off, if necessary, will be held on Tuesday, December 3, 2019.”
That suggests that Blythe city elections may have different rules.
Four people spoke at a Statesboro City Council meeting in opposition to placement of an historical marker commemorating lynchings, according to the Statesboro Herald.
Some of the speakers suggested that a marker be placed memorializing five members of the Hodges family murdered in 1904. In Bulloch County’s most infamous lynching, Will Cato and Paul Reed were found guilty by all-white juries in rapid trials on Aug. 15 and 16, 1904, and sentenced by a judge to be hanged at a later date. But a white mob then seized them – reportedly with assistance from some of those who were supposed to be guarding them – hauled them north of town and burned them at the stake.
The first of Tuesday evening’s four speakers was Jeffrey Marshall Webster, who administers a “White Heritage” social media group. During the Feb. 21 meeting he had been the one speaker against the marker.
“Council members, four weeks ago you approved an historical marker memorializing victims of lynching over a century ago, said marker to be paid for by Equal Justice Initiative, a far-left group funded by George Soros,” Webster said. “Two of the so-called victims on this marker are these men, Paul Reed and Will Cato, who in 1904 murdered Henry Hodges, pictured here with his family, in the course of a robbery.”
“For reasons of leftist ideology and shameless political pandering you have chosen not only to stir up racial animus, but to spit on the graves of the Hodges,” Webster said to the council. “I proposed that to ameliorate the desecration, you approve a marker on city property memorializing the Hodges. You have obviously declined to do that. …”
The mayor then said he was taking “a point of privilege” to reply and that there had been “some misinformation” in regard to the marker.
“We’re not saying what happened to the Hodges family is excused by any act, but what we’re saying is the lynching that occurred in this community of those nine souls and other individuals that we can’t even identify was wrong,” he continued.
United States Representative Buddy Carter (R-Pooler) says his office is receiving increasing numbers of requests for help with passports, according to WTOC.
Many people didn’t travel during the first few years of the pandemic, but now, many travelers are realizing their passports are expired, creating a backlog of applications, according to a spokesperson for Rep. Carter.
Right now average turnaround times are 5-8 weeks for an expedited application, and 8-12 weeks for a regular application.
Carter’s office recommends that if your passport is set to expire in about a year, it’s best to renew it now.
Their office can also help track applications, and assist in cases of emergency.
Trucking shortages may affect Georgia agriculture, according to WALB.
“As are you saying, it’s getting worse. The trucking demand. Shortage has helped somewhat with the economy slowing down, the problem remains the cost of things,” President of Southern Ag Carriers, Hugh Nall said. “For us, the cost of insurance has gone out of sight, you know, with all the, you know, every time you turn on the TV, you see somebody want to sue a trucking company. And then the supply chain side of things. For forest parts and. Getting things fixed, you know, trucks being down and and then of course there there’s still a driver shortage. That has eased a little bit with this slowdown in the economy, but but overall it’s still not a good picture for the for the trucking industry.”
“Well, I think it can be once again if we continue to see. Shortage in the parts, especially for the smaller guys, you know, we run 260-something, trucks. So if we have a truck go down, we you know, we we have another truck. Hopefully, we can get moved in there but a lot of them companies, especially individual truck owners, you know, I’m really concerned about them. If they have a truck go down and and it takes two or three weeks to get it fixed. It’s going to really create a shortage, another and a shortage, but a a big financial burden on those guys. So you know, really concerned about that once the harvest starts. You know, as you know this. Everything gets harvested around the same time because corn is always earlier. Then you get into the peanuts and then into the cotton and you know, soybeans or whatever. But there, there is a concern, you know, with, you know, as the season. The harvest season begins. You know, we’re we’re concerned with the availability of running trucks.”
A former Chatham County Assistant District Attorney has sued District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones, according to WTOC.
District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones is being sued by a former Assistant District Attorney over claims of sex discrimination, retaliation, violation of the Georgia Whistleblower Act, and multiple civil rights violations.
Former ADA Anthony Burton filed that lawsuit Tuesday.
Burton has already announced he is running against Cook-Jones in 2024.
He claims a culture of sex discrimination blocked his chances of being promoted and ultimately led to his termination.
He also claims that, after Jones was elected – DA’s Office employees called him derogatory names… and quote, “made cruel remarks about him based on sex stereotypes and/or because of his sexual orientation.”
He also says that he was retaliated against after alerting the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia that he was concerned about mismanagement of the budget.
Three additional Savannah City Council members announced their reelection campaigns:
Linda Wilder Bryan announces re-election bid for Savannah Council District 3 – Savannah Morning News
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