Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for May 17, 2021

Georgia’s trustees asked Britain to repeal the law against importing slaves to the colonies on May 17, 1749.

On May 17, 1769, George Washington introduced resolutions in the Virginia House of Burgesses, drafted by George Mason, criticizing Britain’s “taxation without representation” policies toward the colonies.

George Washington continued his tour of Georgia on May 17, 1791, staying overnight in Waynesboro; on May 18 he arrived in Augusta.

General Winfield Scott issued an order on the removal of Cherokee people from Georgia on May 17, 1838.

On May 17, 1864, Sherman and Johnston engaged in the Battle of Adairsville, Georgia.

The United States Supreme Court released its unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education on May 17, 1954, overturning Plessy v. Ferguson.

The historic decision, which brought an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation, specifically dealt with Linda Brown, a young African American girl who had been denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because of the color of her skin.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Governor Brian Kemp extended the suspension of the fuel tax through May 22 to allow any lingering problems to clear up. From the Center Square via the Jackson Progress-Argus.

Kemp issued an executive order Monday that suspended the gas tax, increased weight limits for trucks transporting fuel and prohibited price gouging. The order was set to expire Saturday before Kemp extended it Friday.

“While Colonial Pipeline is now operational, the company has informed the public that it will be a few days until full service is available statewide,” Kemp said in a statement. “This executive order will ensure fuel supply chains have every resource needed to deliver gas quickly and safely, and that Georgians aren’t hit with state gas taxes at the pump during this shortage. I continue to ask Georgians to only purchase the fuel they need for essential travel through the upcoming weekend.”

Meanwhile, gas prices in Georgia spiked by as much as 21 cents per gallon, according to AccessWDUN.

According to the weekly report from AAA-The Auto Club South, gasoline sales were reportedly two to three times stronger than normal as drivers lined up at pumps to top off their tanks.

The increased demand and lower supply level caused a  sharp increase at Georgia gas pumps, and Georgia motorists are now paying an average price of $2.96 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline. The average price is 21-cents more than a week ago, 26-cents more than last month and $1.30 more than this time last year.

It now costs motorists $44.40 to fill a 15-gallon tank of gasoline; that’s $7.50 more than what motorists paid in January of 2020 when pump prices hit their peak of $2.46 per gallon.

Hall County has too few prisoners in its jail to fulfill a contract for labor with the state, according to AccessWDUN.

Correctional Institution Warden Walt Davis appeared before the Hall County Commission Monday afternoon to seek extension approval of a pair of contracts that Hall County has with the Georgia Department of Transportation to provide inmate work details.

Davis told [County Commissioner Billy] Powell that while the facility can house 240 inmates, “…we have 96 inmates right now.”

Davis says the reason for the “shortage” of prisoners at the Barber Road facility is COVID-19. “Courts have been shut down for over a year and there has been nobody into the state prison system.”

Davis expects that to change as courts are once again in session, but he thinks it will be the end of the summer before the CI sees an increase in inmate population.

“COVID has really hurt both state facilities and county facilities. It’s hurting us,” Davis said. The Hall County CI, like most statewide CIs, gets paid for housing inmates. “We’re scraping the bottom of the barrel.”

The Chatham County Commission has rescinded its mask mandate, according to WTOC.

According to a news release from the county, the mask order was rescinded in compliance with Gov. Brian Kemp’s threshold requirements to have a local face covering requirement. Chatham County’s Community Transmission Index rate dropped below the threshold of 100 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents this week.

Chairman Ellis strongly encourages all citizens, workers and visitors in Chatham County to get vaccinated and to support practices to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Masks and social distancing are encouraged as well as maintaining the practice of washing your hands often with soap and water.

Chatham County will still require masks to be worn in all county facilities.

Savannah City Council voted Thursday to extend its mask mandate until May 31.

The University of Georgia will continue to encourage mask use but not require it, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

As spring semester wraps up, the University of Georgia has announced new COVID-19 guidelines.

Vaccines will be strongly encouraged while masks are no longer required “effective immediately” for those fully vaccinated, according to a new return to campus letter released Friday to staff and faculty.

In response to USG’s new guidelines, UGA announced a transition over the next several weeks to pre-COVID operations in preparation for fall semester. In March, university officials announced UGA would resume normal operations this fall.

The UGA guidelines aim for a goal of June 14 for all employees to be back to work in person, though it does allow for some flexibility.

“Effective immediately, fully vaccinated individuals can resume campus classes and other activities without physically distancing or wearing a mask,” the letter said.

Those who are unvaccinated are “strongly encouraged” to continue wearing a mask indoors and socially distance. Through summer semester, UGA will continue with social distancing.

Columbia County public schools will drop the mask mandate for fully-vaccinated people, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Superintendent Dr. Steven Flynt released a letter Friday afternoon giving the option in most school settings.

“Based upon guidance from the Centers for Disease and Control, Columbia County School District will allow fully-vaccinated individuals the option of wearing a face covering for the remainder of the school year with the exception of all individuals on a school bus,” Flynt wrote.

Schools will continue to have hand-sanitizing stations, Plexiglass dividers in school cafeterias, bipolar ionization systems and daily sanitizing throughout buildings.

The statement from Flynt comes after parents gathered at the Board of Education meeting Tuesday night asking that the mandate be lifted.

The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer looked at local companies’ plans to go back to the office.

Aflac, a Fortune 500 company and Columbus-based insurer with an international footprint, still has 95% of its employees working from home on a consistent basis. The company also continues to limit international travel, corporate spokesperson Jon Sullivan told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email.

If current trends continue, Aflac hopes to have half of its workforce back in the office by early 2022, at least part of the time. However, that timetable could shift as factors change, Sullivan said.

Those were the plans before the CDC issued new masking wearing guidance. In response to a follow up email, Sullivan said he was unable to immediately estimate how the new guidance might change the company’s plans.

“Like many other companies, our employees are asking for continued flexibility in their work,” he said. “We know that our post-pandemic work environment will look different. With safety at the forefront, we will also be looking to create any efficiencies that could come as a result of lessons learned during the pandemic. While we do anticipate some individuals working either from home or in a hybrid situation, many factors will go into these decisions, not the least of which are safety, efficiency and work output.”

In Columbus, [Global Payments] is continuing to evaluate its “workspace needs” in the aftermath of the 2019 merger of TSYS and Global Payments. However, Edmonds said the company is not closing any portion of its business.

Synovus, the Columbus-based banking and financial services provider, said about 35% of its employees were working from home — down from nearly 60% in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, spokesperson Lee Underwood told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email.

The company said it expects that most of its employees will return to the office later this summer or early this fall. The new guidance from the CDC doesn’t change that estimation, Underwood said Thursday afternoon. The company has roughly 5,200 employees, with 1,900 of them based in the Chattahoochee Valley.

Delta Air Lines will require vaccination for new hires, according to CNN via the Gwinnett Daily Post.

“Any person joining Delta in the future we will mandate to get vaccinated before they can sign up with the company,” CEO Ed Bastian told CNN’s Richard Quest in an exclusive interview.

Bastian said that he would “strongly encourage” Delta’s existing 75,000 employees to get the vaccine and help them “understand the risk to not get vaccinated.” Those who opt out of being vaccinated might face restrictions, such as not being able to work international flights, he said.

We mentioned this last week, but State Rep. Timothy Barr will run for Congress in the Tenth District, according to the Gainesville Times.

Barr, who represents parts of South Hall and North Gwinnett counties in District 103, hopes to replace U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Greensboro, who has announced he is running for Georgia secretary of state.

“Under President Biden, we have a federal government that is actively eroding our liberty,” Barr said in a press release. “I, for one, refuse to be a generation who hands our country over to socialism, and this is why I have decided to run for Congress.”

He adds that “as a strong believer in principled conservative leadership,” he will join the House Freedom Caucus if elected. He said he also would “actively take on the ‘cancel culture’ that seeks to silence conservatives.”

Neither the release nor his website give his stance on any specific issues. He said in a text he supported Georgia’s Heartbeat Bill limiting abortions and has been a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and “never voting for a tax increase.”

The cutting and removal of the wreck of M/V Golden Ray in the St Simons Sound is on hold while a fire blazes on the vessel, according to The Brunswick News.

Cutting operations are on hold as engineers moved in Saturday to make a post-fire assessment of the shipwrecked Golden Ray, the remains which became engulfed in thick black smoke and raging flames early Friday afternoon.

Salvors moved in with five firefighting tugboats that siphoned and poured thousands of gallons of saltwater into the burning steel carcass, extinguishing the fire Friday night, Unified Command announced at 9:11 p.m. The fire started as welders suspended from ropes were using welding torches to conduct precise cuts in the cutting path for Section 3, the fifth cut on what remains of the shipwreck.

Officials believe one of the 6-foot-long welding torches ignited a vehicle in the cargo hold, said U.S. Coast Guardsman Michael Himes, spokesperson for Unified Command. Stiff easterly winds blowing through the open ends quickly spread the fire to vehicles above the water line inside the roughly 300 feet of shipwreck remaining in the sound, Himes said. The 656-foot-long Golden Ray carried a cargo of 4,200 vehicles when it capsized on its port side Sept. 8, 2019, while heading out to sea. As much as half of those vehicles remained inside the steel hulk’s 12 interior decks, Himes said.