On September 15, 1831, Dr. Samuel Worcester and Dr. Elizur Butler – missionaries – were tried in a Lawrenceville courtroom for living as white people among the Cherokee and refusing to take an oath of loyalty to Georgia, convicted and sentenced to hard labor. Some historians refer to this case, which went to the United States Supreme Court on appeal, as the beginning of the events that led to the forced removal of the Cherokee people from Georgia on the “Trail of Tears.”
HMS Beagle, carrying Charles Darwin, arrived at the Gallapagos Islands on September 15, 1835.
On September 15, 1904, Wilbur Wright made the first in-flight turn in an airplane.
Early on the morning of September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls.
On September 15, 1996, the Texas Rangers retired #34 in honor of the most dominant pitcher in professional baseball history, Nolan Ryan.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Rest in Peace to Bill Bryant, Jr., who died Saturday,“not wanting to witness the results of the 2016 election and after determining nothing on television was worth watching anymore….”
Two Georgians were on Fox Business News fighting back against Hillary calling Trump supporters deplorable.
I hope they’re selling Deplorables t-shirts online now.
Congressman Austin Scott (R-Tifton) is the latest Georgia Republican to join the Trump-Pence campaign’s state leadership.
Chaired by U.S. Sen. David Perdue, the leadership team includes U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, who supported U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in his bid for the Republican nomination earlier in the year. Scott, in a statement released through the Rubio campaign in late February, just ahead of the presidential preference primary in Georgia, was highly critical of Trump.
Asked Wednesday about his change of heart regarding Trump, Scott responded in an email, “Throughout her career, Hillary Clinton has exhibited a lack of character and judgment, making her untrustworthy and unfit to serve as our country’s next president.
“If elected, Hillary Clinton will continue the progressive agenda we’ve seen under the Obama Administration that has hurt Americans, especially working class Americans like those in Georgia’s Eighth Congressional District. This is why I am committed to defeating Hillary Clinton this November.”
“The Trump-Pence campaign in Georgia is proud to have the unanimous support of the Republican congressional delegation in Georgia,” Rayna Casey, Trump’s Georgia Campaign chair, said in announcing the leadership slate. “These esteemed leaders are united behind Donald Trump’s message of economic prosperity, job growth, a strong military and secure borders.
An Athens man was arrested and charged with stealing a Trump sign.
An employee of an eastside restaurant was arrested over the weekend after he reportedly stole a Donald Trump campaign sign from a neighboring property because he felt the sign “reflected poorly on the business,” according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.
Robert Young Hagwood, identified in the report as a 44-year old server employed by Mama’s Boy, was already warned by the sign’s owner, Warren Blackmon, that the sign was posted on property that Blackmon owned adjacent to the restaurant.
Blackmon wanted to press charges after he said several other Trump for President signs went missing from the fence over the previous week, according to the police report.
Hagwood, who was charged Saturday with misdemeanor theft by taking, did not respond to a telephone message seeking comment.
Stealing a campaign sign is strictly amateur hour compared to stealing an election for District Attorney in Henry County.
The Republican candidate for Henry County District Attorney dropped out of the race Tuesday, citing a large political donation to his opponent from an organization connected to well-known financier George Soros.
“After consulting with my family and trusted advisers, it has become clear that we will most likely not be successful against an unlimitedly financed opponent, and I refuse to put my family through what has transpired in other Soros-backed elections,” McCord stated in an email the the Henry Herald. “Please understand that I do not make this decision lightly.”
According to the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commissioner, Soros Fund Management donated $100,000 to the Georgia Safety & Justice committee on Aug. 30. Over $91,000 from the account is listed as expenditures for consulting, research, and polling services for Pattillo.
“Campaign financing is a real issue in this country that must be tackled. George Soros, a Washington D.C., billionaire has invested $100,000 in my opponent’s campaign as he has many other localized campaigns across the country,” McCord further stated. “If the money was all we were up against, it may be different. But with the involvement of the Soros camp, history tells us they will win at all costs — two months filled with personal attacks on my family and an infusion of negativity into this great county. All from someone who has no affiliation with Henry County. That’s not what this election should be about.”
Vicki Temple, chairwoman of the Henry County Republican Party, appeared very upset by the decision, largely because the party now does not have the opportunity to appoint a substitute in McCord’s place.
Georgia’s election laws state a candidate must withdraw 60 or more days before the election in order for the vacancy to be filled either by a substitute nomination from the party or the party candidate who received the second highest votes, or more than 40 percent, during the primary election.
File that one under “Stupid things to get arrested for.” Also filed there: getting arrested for impersonating a clown.
Brandon Moody, 26, of LaGrange, and his sister-in-law Rebecca Moody, 27, of Valley, Alabama, allegedly admitted to Troup County Sheriff’s deputies they called emergency dispatchers and said two people dressed in clown costumes were trying to lure children into a white van, stated Sheriff James Woodruff.
Both were taken into custody and will each be charged with one count of unlawful conduct during a 911 call and one count of obstruction of an officer. The last charge was added since the pair prevented TCSO deputies from performing their official duties during an investigation, Woodruff said.
“We have zero tolerance for anybody calling in false reports,” Woodruff said firmly.
The “creepy clown” phenomenon also continued to spread on social media sites throughout the county.
Callaway Middle School located 2244 Hammett Road was placed on a “soft lock down” Wednesday, said Deb Myers with the Troup County School System.
Campaign signs do not belong in the right-of-way, but now solar installations may, after a vote of the Georgia Public Service Commission.
The Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) approved the installation of one megawatt of solar generation in the right-of-way along Interstate 85 in Troup County, Ga., during a hearing on the Georgia Power Company’s 2016 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). The motion was proposed by Commissioner Tim Echols of the GPSC and passed at two separate administrative sessions on July 28th and September 8th. Votes were 4-1 and 3-2 respectively.
“I’m very excited about the potential of The Ray and its ability to demonstrate roadside solar as another form of alternative energy,” said GPSC Chairman Chuck Eaton.
I’ve known there were clowns in Dublin, Georgia since they started spending $300k per year to “save” $100k in a scammy solar deal. But I thought the clowns were restricted to the public entities that signed off on that mess.
WMAZ is investigating a rash of clown sightings in Middle Georgia.
Dublin Police Chief Tim Chatman says the rumored clown sightings began after someone blamed a car accident Friday on swerving to avoid a clown.
“No one saw a clown at the time of the accident,” said Chatman. “It was a family member that reported it several hours later — that it was the reason why this accident occurred; because someone was in the road dressed like a clown.”
Chatman says there’s no evidence that’s true.
“We can’t say for certain that someone hasn’t seen anyone looking like a clown, but we have had several reports where we assigned an investigator with this situation and we have yet to substantiate,” said Chatman.
Michaela Brooks says she and her sister saw clowns in Dublin on Thursday around 11 p.m. in the Middle Georgia State University parking lot.
“A car came up behind us and parked. I didn’t think much of it, until my sister started freaking out, and she told me they were dressed as clowns,” said Brooks.
WMAZ spoke to campus police at Middle Georgia State University and they say they’re investigating the incident.
Cobb County police are investigating a possible attempted abduction in which a 10-year old boy is said to have been used in an attempt to lure a 6-year old.
The Pig Palace has been added to my list of places to try the barbecue, even if it doesn’t always come with a side of politics.
The Palace, with weathered-board siding and windows that swing open, looks like a Cracker Barrel restaurant might if they had Cracker Barrels on your grandpa’s farm — out among pastures and ponds at the end of mile-long gravel lanes affectionately known, as this one is, as Boss Hogg Road.
Governors and lieutenant governors have visited this tin-roofed barn of a social hall smack in the piney countryside along Little Rocky Creek, not far from where Twiggs, Bleckley, Wilkinson and Laurens counties touch.
On Wednesday, with 55 days until the presidential election and with candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton competing — in these parts at least — with football for voters’ eyeballs, a state representative hosted a noon-hour barbecue fundraiser for his re-election campaign.
It was into this scene that 100 or so folks ventured to support James Alton “Bubber” Epps and his bid to remain the area’s House District 144 representative.
There wasn’t much talk of the presidential campaign — though a Telegraph reporter did go around asking people their thoughts on Clinton and Trump and the circus that their race has become.
A federal lawsuit claims that Georgia is preventing thousands from registering to vote.
Georgia’s voter registration process violates the Voting Rights Act and has prevented tens of thousands of residents, mostly minorities, from registering to vote, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Under a policy implemented in 2010, people aren’t added to voter rolls if identifying information on their applications doesn’t exactly match information in databases maintained by the Georgia Department of Driver Services or the Social Security Administration, the lawsuit says.
“What Georgia is doing is denying people the ability to make it onto the registration rolls at the outset, which is what’s so problematic about this matching program,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the organizations that filed the lawsuit.
A spokeswoman for Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp called the lawsuit “an effort by liberal groups to disrupt voter registration just weeks before November’s important election.”
“The verification process Georgia currently uses was pre-cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2010,” spokeswoman Candice Broce said in an email.
The Gainesville Times looks at how voter registration and the complained-about database matching of voter registration works.
“We register anybody that registers to vote,” said Charlotte Sosebee, Hall County elections director.
Sosebee said once the elections office receives a voter registration application, “we put it in the system” and the application is pending for 24 hours. During that time, she said, information is matched against data in the Department of Driver Services and Social Security systems, and it is also determined whether the person is a citizen or not.
Under the Georgia policy, if any of the information is found not to match, a letter notifies the applicant of the problem. If the applicant doesn’t respond within 40 days, the application is automatically canceled and the person must start over.
“It’s really left to the voter to follow up,” Sosebee said.
Four Constitutional Amendments are on the ballot in November, and the Northeast Georgian has published them for your sedation education.
Lumpkin County Board of Education added themselves to the list of educrats opposed to the Opportunity School District Amendment on the November ballot.
Lumpkin County Board of Education voted unanimously to support a resolution opposing the creation of “a state-run school district, otherwise known as the ‘Opportunity School District (OSD).’”
“This is a state takeover of public schools across the state of Georgia that eliminates local decision-making authority,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Rob Brown told board members when he handed out copies of the proposed resolution at last week’s work session.
One of his primary concerns, he said, was how the new state-wide district would be funded.
“I cannot fathom how the creation of a new school system with over 100 schools can be created without the loss of some funding for existing school systems. Furthermore, I cannot imagine that a state-wide school system leader would better understand the educational needs of schools better than someone who lives and works within those communities.”
I cannot fathom that a county superintendent does not know the difference between “up to 100” and “over 100.”
This seems to be ripe for a legislative fix: a Fayette County veteran who is disabled is unable to receive a property tax refund after he was forced to wait seven years for paperwork from the Veterans Administration.
Expressing heavy hearts, the Fayette County Board of Commissioners denied the request by a local resident for refunds related to a Veterans Exemption on tax returns dating back to 2010 while vowing to help work with the legislature to open the door to assist those in similar situations.
This May, Peter L. Davis brought a judgement order to the Fayette County Tax Commissioner’s Office to apply for the LDV2 Veterans Exemption, effective Jan. 1, 2010. Davis was asking for tax refunds totaling $7,658.50 for 2010 through 2015, years for which he was retroactively declared disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Per the official request in the agenda packet, failure to apply for the exemption would constitute a waiver of exemption, however he was unable to apply for the exemption previously as he waited seven years to receive the required documentation from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Because there was no erroneous or illegal assessment or collection of tax, staff recommended denial of Davis’ request.
Fayette County Tax Commissioner George Wingo spoke in support of Davis, saying that the VA dragging their feet for years is causing veterans exemptions to come across his desk with greater frequency lately, and he did not want the county to forget about those who served.County Attorney Dennis Davenport laid out that, while tax refunds can be issued up to three years retroactively, there is no provision in Georgia law to allow for retroactive exemptions.
The Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Political Hobnob tonight at the Newnan Centre, 1515 Lower Fayetteville Road. The reception begins at 5 PM and candidate forum at 6:30; Admission is $15.
On the Nov. 8 ballot, there are three local races and four proposed constitutional amendments in addition to the presidential contest.
The race for U.S. Congress District 3 is between Republican Drew Ferguson of West Point and Democrat Angela Pendley of Grantville.
State Rep. David Stover, R-Palmetto, is being challenged by Democrat Cynthia Bennett, a frequent Democratic candidate.
And state Rep. Bob Trammell, D-Luthersville, is being challenged by Republican Gene King of Gay. King has run unsuccessfully for the Georgia House District 132 seat several times, including two years ago, when Trammell was elected to replace retiring Rep. Carl Von Epps, D-LaGrange.
Bryan Tyson, Executive Director of the Georgia Public Defender Council spoke to WABE yesterday about the work of public defenders in Georgia. The interview provides a good overview of issues facing public defenders and their role in ensuring the fairness and integrity of our judicial system.
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