On October 2, 1789, President George Washington signed a resolution transmitting the (then-twelve) amendments constituting the Bill of Rights to the states that had ratified the Constitution. Click here for the letter from Washington to Governor Charles Pinckney of South Carolina that accompanied the amendments.
On October 2, 1835, Texans and Mexicans met in the first military battle of the Texas Revolution, the Battle of Gonzales.
In 1831, Mexican authorities gave the settlers of Gonzales a small cannon to help protect them from frequent Comanche raids. Over the next four years, the political situation in Mexico deteriorated, and in 1835 several states revolted. As the unrest spread, Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, the commander of all Mexican troops in Texas, felt it unwise to leave the residents of Gonzales a weapon and requested the return of the cannon.
When the initial request was refused, Ugartechea sent 100 dragoons to retrieve the cannon. The soldiers neared Gonzales on September 29, but the colonists used a variety of excuses to keep them from the town, while secretly sending messengers to request assistance from nearby communities. Within two days, up to 140 Texians gathered in Gonzales, all determined not to give up the cannon. On October 1, settlers voted to initiate a fight. Mexican soldiers opened fire as Texians approached their camp in the early hours of October 2. After several hours of desultory firing, the Mexican soldiers withdrew.
On October 2, 1879, Wallace Stevens was born. Stevens would become a renowned poet and insurance industry lawyer. My favorite poem of his is “Connoisseur of Chaos.”
A. A violent order is disorder; and
B. A great disorder is an order. These
Two things are one.
President Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke at the White House on October 2, 1909.
Thurgood Marshall was sworn-in as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court on October 2, 1967.
Betty Talmadge, then wife of Senator Herman Talmadge, hosted a fundraiser with Rosalynn Carter and Joan Mondale on October 2, 1976.
Ground was broken for The Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta on October 2, 1984.
The last Braves game at Turner Field was played on October 2, 2016, with the Detroit Tigers besting the Braves by 1-0.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Last week, the AJC wrote that the rollout of the new COVID vaccine has been a cluster rocky road.
Georgians seeking the new COVID-19 vaccines are facing all sorts of snags: some are struggling to find doses, while others are being told they need to pay up to $200 for a shot. Across the state, parents are finding it nearly impossible to find vaccines for their kids.
And it may be weeks before the issues are resolved.
Previously, the federal government bought vaccines in bulk, and provided them at no cost to Americans. Beginning with this vaccine, the commercial market has taken over the work of buying and distributing shots. Unlike the annual flu vaccine, the manufacturers and processes are new and for now, problematic.
Dr. Ashish Jha, who was White House COVID-19 response coordinator from March 2022 until June of this year, said the rollout of vaccine doses is getting caught up in the complexities of the U.S. health care system.
“When you’re forced to switch from the government as a single purchaser, buying all of these things (COVID vaccines), to a commercial system where you literally have hundreds of purchasers — middlemen, pharmacy benefits management companies, etcetera — it’s going to be a little bit bumpy,” said Jha, who spoke during a webinar on COVID held Thursday by USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism.
Last week, when I asked my insurance carrier about the availability of the latest vaccine, they said they don’t have any. And I got sick. That’s why there was nothing sent out Friday.
A group called Hardworking Georgians will spend $100k supporting Governor Kemp’s plan for tort reform, according to the Associated Press via WRDW.
The group, called Hardworking Georgians, said Monday that limits would cut insurance costs and make it easier for businesses to get insured and to defend against lawsuits in court.
The group says it will spend more than $100,000 on ads in the state.
Kemp announced his plan to back lawsuit limits in August at a meeting of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
“For too long, Georgia tort laws have encouraged frivolous lawsuits that hamstring job creators, drive up insurance costs for families already struggling to make ends meet, undermine fairness in the courtroom, and make it harder to start, grow, and operate a small business,” Cody Hall, the group’s executive director and Kemp’s top political aide, said in a statement.
Efforts to limit lawsuits have made little progress in the Georgia General Assembly in recent years, but could find a warmer reception from Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and House Speaker Jon Burns than from earlier Republican leaders.
A group linked to the second-term governor unveiled Monday an initial six-figure media blitz that includes targeted digital ads warning Georgians of “senseless regulations that drive up insurance prices.”
“We need to reform these laws to reduce prices, to restore fairness in our court system and to bring more jobs to our communities,” said the ad, financed by the Hardworking Georgians PAC established by the governor’s allies in the runup to his 2022 reelection campaign.
He’s taking on one of the most perilous legislative battles in Georgia. Ascendant Republicans rewrote the state’s litigation rules nearly two decades ago despite determined opposition from trial lawyers. Since then, the courts have chipped away at the overhaul.
“For too long, Georgia tort laws have encouraged frivolous lawsuits that hamstring job creators, drive up insurance costs for families already struggling to make ends meet” and make it harder for businesses to grow, said Kemp adviser Cody Hall.
The Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, the powerful lobby group that represents plaintiff’s attorneys, said it hopes to work with Kemp and legislative leaders to “protect the citizens of Georgia” and ensure their constitutional rights are preserved.
United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen toured the Savannah Port, according to GPB News.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited the Port of Savannah on Friday, where she touted President Joe Biden’s economic policies and investments in the nation’s infrastructure.
Following a tour of the port, Yellen described the facility as “by far the most impressive port I’ve ever visited in my life,” and thanked port employees for their work.
“This port’s ability to receive and ship goods effectively and efficiently matters tremendously for our country’s economic strength,” she said.
Yellen announced no new policies or programs in her 20-minute talk, which resembled a battleground campaign speech for Biden, who has recently struggled to win over public approval for his handling of the economy.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — was praised by Yellen as a boost to Savannah’s regional economy.
The legislation provides $48 million for environmental monitoring of the recently deepened Savannah harbor, allowing larger ships to enter and exit the port.
“Estimates project that every dollar invested in this project will bring about $7 in benefits to our economy.”
Relatively few of Yellen’s remarks centered around the port. Instead, she spoke broadly about federal infrastructure spending as part of Biden’s “modern supply-side economics” to increase American productivity.
“Over the past two-and-a-half years, we’ve undergone an historic economic recovery,” she said. “Unemployment is near historic lows and inflation is down substantially through the long term.”
I kind of feel like it’s got to be a tough job to put lipstick on a razorback hog try to convince people that “Bidenomics” is a good thing.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker denied an injunction request by District Attorneys suing to stop the Prosecutor Qualifications Commission, according to WRDW.
Augusta Circuit DA Jared William … and the other plaintiffs say the commission unconstitutionally infringes on their power.
Georgia’s law is one in a series of attempts nationwide by Republicans to impose controls on prosecutors they don’t like. Republicans have inveighed against progressive prosecutors after some have brought fewer drug possession cases and sought shorter prison sentences, arguing Democrats are coddling criminals.
Led by DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, the group of plaintiffs includes Towaliga District Attorney Jonathan Adams, Augusta District Attorney Jared Williams, and Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady.
The commission has not begun operating yet, and its rules must be approved by the state Supreme Court. The plaintiffs argued prosecutors are already changing their behavior because they’re worried about getting investigated. But Whitaker said there’s no proof that anyone has been hurt by the law yet. Usually, only people who can prove an injury have standing to bring a lawsuit.
“The court is persuaded that the Georgia Constitution expressly authorizes the General Assembly to impose duties on district attorneys and to create the grounds and processes to (discipline) or remove district attorneys who fail to meet those legal duties,” Whitaker wrote.
The plaintiffs say the law creates a bias in favor of prosecuting people, but Carr, a Republican, argued that if district attorneys don’t prosecute, they are violating their oaths of office.
“All Georgians deserve to be safe, and it’s a district attorney’s duty to enforce the law,” Carr said in a statement. “When elected prosecutors fail to do so, crime goes up and victims are denied justice.”
The law raises key questions about prosecutorial discretion, a bedrock of the American judicial system that allows prosecutors to decide what criminal charges to seek and how heavy of a sentence to pursue. The Georgia law states a prosecutor can’t refuse to prosecute whole categories of crimes, but must instead decide charges case by case. It applies both to district attorneys and elected solicitors general, who prosecute lower-level crimes in some Georgia counties.
The commission was created through a Republican-backed bill, SB 92, this year that gives them the authority to investigate and remove local prosecutors from office.
The bill states that prosecutors are required to “review every individual case for which probable cause for prosecution exists, and make a prosecutorial decision under the law based on the facts and circumstances of each individual case. …”
In the lawsuit, the four prosecutors — Stone Mountain (DeKalb County) District Attorney Sherry Boston, Augusta District Attorney Jared Williams, Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady and Towaliga District Attorney Jonathan Adams — said the legislature overstepped its authority in violation of Georgia’s Separation of Powers doctrine when it approved SB 92.
They argue that the new law threatens the ability of local prosecutors to handle their dockets efficiently and to focus on serious crimes most affecting public safety. In addition, the prosecutors say that the lack of resources and case backlogs have demanded that prosecutors find ways to focus on the most serious of crimes and use tools like pretrial diversion to resolve cases more efficiently.
Opponents of the bill said the new law was created to unfairly target Democrat prosecutors like Fulton County DA Fani Willis who is prosecuting former president Donald Trump, and others who have vowed not prosecute abortion-related cases.
The Georgia Senate Caucus has suspended Sen. Colton Moore (R-Extreme NWGA) from participating in their meetings, according to the AJC.
The announcement came shortly after state Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, issued a press release saying he had been removed from the caucus. Moore did not respond to a request for comment.
In his press release, Moore maintained that a special session to investigate [Fulton Count District Attorney Fani) Willis was possible. That stance has been rebuffed by Gov. Brian Kemp and other GOP leaders, prompting Moore to mount a series of verbal attacks on his colleagues.
“The Georgia Constitution clearly outlines the Legislature’s power to call an emergency session to investigate a judicial officer,” he said in the statement. “After urging my Republican Senate colleagues to join me … they responded by acting like children and throwing me out of the caucus.”
In a press release, the Senate Republican Caucus said Moore had been asked to tone down the language he’s been using in his calls for a special session, which they say can’t happen even if they supported one because it would need Democratic backing or a call by Kemp, who has ruled it out.
They said Moore violated multiple caucus rules. The caucus suspension does not keep Moore from performing any of his duties as a senator.
“Sen. Moore has knowingly misled people across Georgia and our nation, causing unnecessary tension and hostility, while putting his caucus colleagues and their families at risk of personal harm,” the caucus said.
Marshallsville City Council is asking a court to hold Mayor Al Lane in contempt, according to 13WMAZ.
The council filed a motion in court to take Mayor Al Lane to a contempt hearing. They alleged he violated a March court order that limited his decision-making power as mayor and limited how much he could spend on city credit cards. Many of the new developments started with the city’s budget committee.
“We started making cuts. And apparently, he didn’t like the cuts that we made, so he never came back,” said George Rumph, a former committee member.
Rumph was talking about his first meeting on the committee. At the time, the city was more than $100,000 over budget, according to a workshop report. The committee wanted to balance the budget with staffing cuts at city hall. The mayor wanted to make them at the police department.
The mayor presented his own budget, and the council presented theirs with the committee’s support. According to last week’s court order, the city council approved their version, which included the city hall cuts.
Per the documents, Mayor Lane tried to block those layoffs. That’s part of the reason council members took Lane back to court. Another reason: Council claimed Lane violated the previous order.
Judge Brown ordered Mayor Lane spend last Saturday and Sunday in jail but later allowed him house arrest. Lane must also pay the city $3,000 by October 23.
Brunswick City Commissioners are considering closing out the SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) 2016, according to The Brunswick News.
Local government entities began collecting Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax 2016 revenue in April 2017. It is so named because voters approved the SPLOST referendum in 2016 with the city originally slated to receive a percentage estimated around $13.7 million. Growth in sales tax revenue resulted in actual returns of around $15.7 million, however, said City Manager Regina McDuffie.
It’s likely SPLOST 2016 projects will be completely finished by the end of next year, and McDuffie said making sure all the loose ends are tied up in advance will let the city shift smoothly into focusing on SPLOST 2022, which voters approved in November 2022.
City commissioners aren’t required to vote to close out the SPLOST projects, but McDuffie says she’s asking the commission to do so because that will give City Hall a clean slate on which to continue with SPLOST 2022 projects.
Nearly $1.9 million remains in the city’s SPLOST accounts, but “most of it’s obligated,” she said and the city is legally required to spend the money on SPLOST projects.
Port Wentworth City Council members voted to bring transit to the coastal city next year, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Port Wentworth City Council unanimously approved an intergovernmental agreement between the city and the Chatham Area Transit Authority to extend existing route 3B to Port Wentworth in March 2024.
“This is a very big moment for the city,” said City Manager Steve Davis on Thursday. “In the traffic congestion that the city has been facing for years, there’s very limited that the staff can do at a local level, when you have state highways running through the city, but one of the things we can do is offer good alternatives for our commuters and residents that can pass through here.”
CAT is also developing a micro transit pilot program with Georgia Tech, which would provide a reliable, call-a-ride service for residents. In the future, the micro transit service may be extended to Lake Shore and to the new Port Wentworth Park. The city and CAT will also work together in the future to explore autonomous buses for the new park.
The city will include funding in its annual general fund budget for expansion of services and will for pay for services provided up to the amount budgeted.
Columbus City Council is considering expanding their transit services, according to WTVM.
Debate over Columbus METRA services expansion is resurfacing after a presentation to the city council earlier this month from its director, Rosa Evans. The council wanted to expand to provide more services for those with disabilities while ensuring the service grows with the city.
Roneldo Morrison and his director, Kirk Holcomb, at Access Independence, are working on METRA passes for their clients. It’s a service the organization provides to its clients who are physically disabled. They say backlash over the service expansion puts their clients at risk for a limited lifestyle.
In order to hear the concerns of Morrison and others, there will be a public hearing for those who need the service expanded to voice their concerns. The proposal is to expand at least a mile and a half outside the route system, especially for those who use the Dial-a-Ride service.
There will be two separate meetings where the public can weigh in on the discussion. Those dates are Tuesday, Oct. 3 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the City Services Center and Thursday, Oct. 5 at the Columbus Civic Center, starting at 5 p.m.
Rebecca Walden was sworn in as Clerk of Courts for Glynn County, according to The Brunswick News.
At the end of his last day on the job, retiring Clerk of Superior Court Ron Adams lauded his staff and his chief deputy, Rebecca Walden, who took the oath to replace him.
State Sen. Mike Hodges, R-St. Simons Island, recalled first meeting the then smaller Adams on a youth basketball court where as an aggressive player, he pushed Adams.
He noted that Adams worked several weeks in the clerk’s office before he ever took office knowing it would make him better at the job.
Both Hodges and Chief Superior Court Judge Stephen G. Scarlett said Adams took office at a troubled time when it was discovered that more than $1 million had been stolen by an employee.
Scarlett spoke of walking into Adams’ office and seeing him painstakingly going through a 2 1/2-foot stack of checks and court documents ferreting out the exact losses. Adams said his financial officer Mary Overstreet worked long hours investigating the missing funds.
“The factor that allows me to retire is my absolute knowledge and faith that Rebecca Walden is ready, willing and able to serve as your next clerk,” he said.
Her father, Sheriff Neal Jump, held the Bible as she took the oath, and she teared up afterward.
Northeastern Judicial Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Kathlene Gosselin announced she will retire, according to AccessWDUN.
Superior Court Chief Judge Kathlene F. Gosselin, the first woman elected to a judgeship in Hall County, will retire in 2024 when her current term expires, bringing to a close nearly four decades on the bench.
Gosselin currently is the chief judge of the Northeastern Judicial Circuit serving Hall and Dawson counties. She was appointed to the Superior Court bench in 1998 by then-Gov. Zell Miller, and she has been re-elected without opposition eight times. She has been chief judge since 2018.
“I am grateful to the people of Hall and Dawson counties for allowing me to serve as judge, alongside many fine judges and staff, for all these years,” Gosselin said in a news release this morning.
Her career on the bench began in 1986 when she was elected Hall County State Court judge, become the first woman ever elected to the bench here. The year was a landmark year for women in Hall County. In addition to Gosselin’s election, Jane Hemmer became the first woman to be elected to the county commission and Lydia Sartain became the first woman elected solicitor in Hall County.
“It’s certainly something that I’m proud that happened and that 1986 was a banner summer of elections for women,” she said. “We all won. … It was really exciting to be part of that because I think it broke a barrier for other women, and so that anybody could run, which is important.”
Superior Court Judge Jason J. Deal will succeed her as chief judge of the circuit. Gosselin will accept the position of senior judge when she retires.
As a judge, Gosselin has taken a particular interest in the county’s successful accountability courts, which allow defendants to avoid jail by completing a rigorous, highly supervised program. She founded the circuit’s first mental health court in 2004 and a veteran’s accountability court in 2014. She later served as president of the Council of Accountability Court Judges.
“I continued to see when I started as a judge people that cycled in and out of the criminal justice system, because we weren’t addressing why they were in the criminal justice system to begin with,” she said in an interview with WDUN. “Soon as they got out of even if you put them in jail, or if they went to prison, just they got out, they were back to the same behaviors.”
She said seeing people successfully complete the accountability court regimen allows her a joy her profession rarely offers.
“When you see somebody making changes in their lives, that they didn’t think they could do before, and you see their family and their children or their parents or their brother come to a graduation and talk about how they have their family member back, and this person is now maybe got a job or at least is not getting in trouble anymore. And they’ve learned how to get along with the people around them. That’s really inspiring,” she said.
Her position on the Superior Court will be filled during the 2024 election cycle. It is a nonpartisan position.
Two candidates announced their campaigns for the seat being vacated by Judge Gosselin, according to AccessWDUN.
Hall County Magistrate Court Judges Michelle Hall and Brian Heck will both run for the Northeastern Judicial Circuit Superior Court seat currently held by Kathlene Gosselin in 2024. Gosselin announced earlier Friday she would retire in 2024 at the end of her term.
“It is with great respect and admiration that I congratulate Chief Judge Kathlene Gosselin on her upcoming retirement at the end of her term in 2024 and announce my candidacy to fill her vacant position,” Hall said. “Judge Gosselin has paved the way for female Judges in the Northeastern Judicial Circuit and has been a personal role model for myself as a Judge during my twenty-year career.”
Hall has served in the Hall County Magistrate Court for the past four years, serving full-time with the court for about the past two years. Additionally, Hall said she has regularly been sitting by designation in Hall County Superior Court for the past two years.
Brian Heck will also run for the seat. Heck, also a Hall County Magistrate Judge, has served in the magistrate court since January 2022.
“I started in the solicitor’s office in April 2015 and worked as a prosecuting attorney until early 2019,” Heck said. “At that point, I joined Judge [Clint] Bearden’s office as his staff attorney and worked with him through the pandemic and into 2021.”
Heck served as a Staff Attorney in 2021 and later as Assistant District Attorney in the Northeastern Judicial Circuit. He joined the magistrate court on a part-time basis in January 2022 and was made full-time in April 2022. Heck said he has served as Judge Gosselin’s backup for the past year on the Hall County Mental Health Accountability Court.
“If she’s stuck in trial or if she’s at a conference or if she’s on vacation or anything like that and can’t preside over the health court, I step in and preside over the court for her,” Heck said. “So it will provide some continuity to that accountability court as well.”
Tift County Schools Superintendent Adam Hathaway resigned and the Board of Education accepted, according to WALB.
The board did not discuss Tift County Schools Head Football Coach Noel Dean or Tift County High School Principal Dr. Chad Stone, who was also placed on a five-day administrative leave earlier in September. Stone is also reportedly paying an unknown amount of restitution to the school system.
In a statement released on Friday, the board confirmed Hathaway’s resignation acceptance, as well as thanked him for his time leading the school district.
“The board appreciates the tireless efforts of Mr. Hathaway during his tenure,” the statement said in part.
Candidates for Hinesville Mayor and City Council met the public in a forum, according to WTOC.
All council positions are up for re-election in the city and with Mayor Allen Brown leaving office, Hinesville will also have a new mayor.
Now, two candidates are running for the seat…Karl Riles and Liston Singletary III.
Riles says he’s been with the city council for several years but it’s his first time running for mayor.
The other candidate for mayor says it’s his third time running.
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